AUSTIN, Texas — Many parents and families are still waiting for Austin ISD to evaluate special education students in the district.
Most recently, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) made a decision to assign a conservatorship to oversee the district's special education services. However, last week, Austin ISD requested an informal review of the decision.
The TEA announced the conservatorship earlier this month after concerns that the district was not completing enough evaluations for students eligible for special education.
Now, parents are speaking up about the struggles they've faced when getting their children evaluated.
Kathryn Whitley Chu is a Board of Trustees member that joined the board in December. Whitley Chu joined hoping to advocate for all the kids stuck waiting for an evaluation.
She experienced a delay in an evaluation herself. Whitley Chu shared that during the pandemic, her daughter was only two and a half when she was sent home. When social distancing restrictions were lifted, her daughter was four and she finally returned to school.
"Her teacher let us know that she was noticing some some challenges," Whitney Chu said. "And, you know, we hadn't been around a whole lot of kids to compare developmentally."
The teacher suggested Whitney Chu reach out to Austin ISD and get her daughter evaluated. The evaluation would determine whether her daughter had a disability and the services she could get to help at school.
When Whitney Chu reached out, the district responded with an email and let her know that within 45 school days, her daughter would be evaluated. However, it wasn't until 10 months later that she was able to get an evaluation done – and it wasn't with the district.
"We ended up going out of pocket to pay for a private evaluation," Whitley Chu said. "We were very privileged to be able to do that – not often we can do that."
Whitney Chu began paying for a speech therapist, and now her daughter is getting the help she needs in the district.
"I especially worried about some of our most vulnerable populations," Whitley Chu said. "That really motivated me to run for school board to solve this problem."
Right now, the district has requested an informal review with the TEA.
"It allows the district to share our aggressive plan for expediting evaluations, creating unprecedented financial incentives for special education staff, and inviting TEA’s collaboration in advancing their recommended special education audit to further inform long overdue systemic changes," the district said in a press release.
Whitney Chu said the district has made great strides in the last couple of months.
"The new board and the new superintendent are taking a completely different approach to this and prioritizing special education services as number one," Whitley Chu said. "And, as we know, it's not just, you know – I didn't just want an evaluation for my child. Parents don't just want evaluation. That's the first step. Then it's getting children everything they need. And so, we're taking a holistic approach to getting evaluations done on time and taking an approach of training our staff to to serve the students in the best possible way."
For this school year, the district has completed 45% more evaluations than the entire previous school year. While there are improvements, filling the positions for special education teachers that are open is also crucial.