Officials at Clear Creek ISD are taking steps to improve its special education department as enrollment numbers in the department grow.

What’s happening?

In 2018, education consultant and research group Gibson provided CCISD a review on its special education department.

The review included 27 recommendations on how the department can improve. In fall 2023, the department reviewed the recommendations again to see which ones remained actionable, according to a presentation by the district.

One of the main reasons the recommendations were reevaluated in 2023 was due to the growth in the special education department, said Michelle Staley, CCISD’s executive director of special services.


Since 2017, the special education enrollment at CCISD has increased by nearly 56%.
Diving in deeper

Of those 27 recommendations, the following nine are currently being implemented within the district:
  • Monitor and utilize special education outcomes data
  • Focus classroom walkthroughs on improvement efforts
  • Joint learning walks for general and special education staff
  • Track and monitor Response to Intervention, or RTI, data for additional support
  • Prioritize and manage accommodations for students with disabilities
  • Provide training in high-yield strategies for general educators
  • Increase professional development opportunities for special education teachers
  • Ensure smooth transitions for students changing campuses
  • Improve communication with parents about their child’s performance
Eight recommendations were assigned to special education administrators, and the RTI, which is being used as part of the process to see whether a student should be placed in special education, is being looked at, according to the presentation.

The future

CCISD is currently waiting on the district’s systematic review of the special education department by the Texas Education Agency, which reviews all local education agencies across the state over a six-year period, according to the presentation.


The TEA reviews the department’s compliance with federal requirements within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, and state laws, the presentation showed.

The review for CCISD began on Aug. 30, Staley said.

“I’m really looking forward to this finding report, not that the Gibson report wasn’t great but it was from 2017-18,” Staley said at the workshop. “We have a lot more students in special education than we had before and things change in seven years.”