At the Aug. 26 board meeting, Tiffany Mathis, executive director of special education, detailed changes in the 2025-26 school year—including new stipends, added wellness days and increased staffing—designed to retain educators and paraprofessionals.
“This type of growth increases self-contained class sizes and teacher caseloads,” Mathis said.
The background
Over the past five years, Mathis said LCISD’s special education program has grown by approximately 2,500 students, bringing the total number of students receiving services to 7,192 as of the 2024-25 school year.
While previously there was a larger gap between statewide and district percentages of special education enrollment, LCISD’s current percentage of 15.4% is now closer to the state average and reflects a broader statewide trend, Mathis said.
The primary driver of growth has been the increase in student referrals, Mathis said. Of the 2,057 total evaluations conducted in 2024-25, over 1,000 students were newly identified as eligible for services.
What’s changing
Mathis said to accommodate the growth of special education students for the 2025-26 school year, Lamar CISD officials have added:
- 34 new teachers and 29 new paraprofessionals
- Behavior support specialists on every elementary and middle school campus, with social-emotional support classrooms
- Up to $15,000 in raises for teachers and $11,500 for paraprofessionals assigned to the Powell Point program, an off-campus instructional site for students with individualized needs not met in a general education classroom
- Two additional wellness days for self-contained staff
Another thing
Mathis said staff have reported a rise in challenging student behavior, often linked to communication, sensory and academic difficulties. In response, the district has expanded professional development with expert-led training and new de-escalation programs provided by training companies such as Ukeru and the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention certification.
Moving forward
The district has sought to expedite the increase of referrals by streamlining assessment timelines and expanding evaluation capacity, Mathis said. In the 2024-25 school year, staff completed 1,348 evaluations, though 709 evaluations are pending or carried over into the current school year.
To meet urgent needs, especially for students displaying severe behaviors early in the year, the district initiated Saturday testing sessions and continues to contract additional assessment staff to ensure no campus goes without support.
