CFISD officials attribute this jump to Texas expanding special education qualifications. District administration has hired more staff to keep up with student evaluations and to ensure students receive the services they need, Chief Academic Officer Linda Macias said in an email.
Additionally, district leaders are asking the state for more funding. CFISD Chief Financial Officer Karen Smith said the district spends about 45% more to serve special education students than general education students. Higher costs are associated with specialized staff, training, instructional materials, technology, facilities and transportation, among other expenses, she said.
The overview
About 14% of CFISD’s 118,000 students—over 16,000 students—are receiving special education services in the 2024-25 school year, according to district data. This percentage nearly doubled from 7.3% a decade ago.
Eligibility criteria may include a child having autism spectrum disorder, an intellectual disability, a health impairment, emotional disturbance, a speech or language impairment, a vision or hearing impairment, or a specific learning disability, according to the district.
Statewide, there’s been a 71% increase in special education students since 2014-15, according to the TEA, which advocacy groups said has created funding challenges for many districts.
“The current funding model has been in place since the 1990s and does not consider the intensity or specialized services required,” CFISD trustee Justin Ray said at the Oct. 7 board meeting.
The state funds special education services based on the number of special education students and the instructional setting—such as a general education classroom, resource classroom, self-contained classroom or homebound instruction.
“While the current funding model was intended to reflect the costs incurred by districts in educating students with disabilities served by special education, much has changed in the preceding 30 years regarding ... how and where those services are provided as outlined in a student’s [individualized education program],” Smith said.
Diving in deeper
For fiscal year 2024-25, CFISD officials estimate the state will only cover about 48.56% of the district’s total special education expenses compared to 60.65% on average over the past decade.
Smith said special education services weren’t affected by the district’s 2024-25 budget cuts approved in June, but additional cuts could be on the way for other departments if the funding model isn’t updated.
The spike in special education students in recent years has increased demand for the already small pool of teachers qualified to serve them, said Deborah Stewart, chief employee and student services officer for CFISD.
This is a critical teacher shortage area at both the state and federal levels. Stewart said heavier workloads due to increased state and federal documentation requirements have also made retention a challenge.
To help recruit special education certification candidates to the district, she said CFISD has piloted a paid teacher residency program with 43% of enrollees completing their residency in a special education classroom.
“We’ve had significant underfunding of our special education services within Texas and within the district, and there’s a significant shortage of special education teachers and paraprofessionals,” trustee Julie Hinaman said at the Nov. 11 board meeting. “They require advanced certifications, additional paperwork, and they really need additional support. It’s demanding work physically, mentally and emotionally.”
The state’s spike in students needing special education services came after a series of investigations and lawsuits dating back to the late 2010s that found Texas was not providing special education services to enough students, said Jolene Sanders, advocacy director for the nonprofit Coalition of Texans with Disabilities.
Previously, Texas had an 8.5% cap on the number of students a school district could classify as needing special education, Sanders said.
Since removing the cap in 2017, that number across the state has increased from around 9% of students to 14% during the 2023-24 school year. For the U.S., the average number of students receiving special education services is 15%, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Sanders said this correction has not only led to more students in special education, but has created more challenges with funding. Advocacy group Disabilities Rights Texas noted in a 2023 report that school districts funded $6.3 billion in special education programs in 2020-21, but the state only covered $4 billion.
Looking ahead
Going into the upcoming legislative session, the district and other advocacy groups hope lawmakers update the funding model to be based on the intensity of services provided.
“The [current] model hasn’t been revised in over 30 years,” Sanders said. “[Legislators] are fighting back and forth because everyone wants their bills passed and their priorities. And somehow special [education] funding ends up being a bargaining tool. And nobody has won so far.”
CFISD is also advocating for other recommendations from the December 2022 Texas Commission on Special Education Funding Report to the 88th Texas Legislature, such as providing special education teacher stipends and increasing reimbursement rates for special education transportation services.
