Texas to 9-year-old blind girl: no educational aid for you!

Posted by | January 3, 2017 06:30 | Filed under: News Behaving Badly

What the heck has become of the state that gave us Sam Houston, Van Cliburn, and LBJ? Oh, right: Greg Abbott and the burn-it-all-down, shred-the-social-safety-net-because-FREEDOM! G.O.P.:

The parents of a 9-year-old legally blind girl are taking action after the public school system in Houston, Texas repeatedly refused to provide special ed services.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “Texas now gives special education services to a lower percentage of students than any other state.” The paper reported that there had seen a “staggering drop” in the number of disabled children receiving special ed services since the state imposed an arbitrary target for services in 2004.

Data collected by the Texas Education Agency between 2004 and 2014 show that there has been a 45.9 percent drop in special ed services for students with learning disabilities. There was a 42.3 percent drop in services to students with mental illness, a 38.6 decrease for students with orthopedic impairment and a 92.7 percent plummet for students with developmental delays.

Overall, 8.5 percent of students in Texas receive special education services compared with 13.5 percent nationwide.

There are real-world consequences for students like 9-year-old Sophia Salehi, who is legally blind and cannot read anything that is more than three inches away from her face.

Salehi’s parents told the Chronicle that Houston ISD had first refused special ed services to their daughter when she was 3 years old. Instead, her parents enrolled her in a private school, where “Sophia struggled and often hurt herself by running into things.”

Sophia is not alone:

Melissa Ferrell re-read the report, trying to control her anger.

Her son Sam had Down syndrome. He did not always speak in complete sentences. He could not hold a pencil. He had trouble going to the bathroom.

And yet the Austin Independent School District was claiming that he did not qualify for special education services.

“Specialized instruction is not needed,” the evaluation report said.

Children with Down syndrome used to automatically qualify for special ed, Ferrell says she was told. But that had changed.

“It was horrible to be in the position of saying, ‘No, my child is actually not that smart,'” Ferrell recalled recently. “I thought I’d be fighting to make sure that his special education program would have some inclusion in the regular classroom in addition to the services. I never thought I’d have to convince them that he really needed help.”

Ferrell’s story illuminates a jarring reality: In Texas today, even children with severe disabilities, including deafness and blindness, can’t always get special education services. Tweet this link

Most of the discussion surrounding the Texas Education Agency’s special education enrollment benchmark has centered on the denial of services to thousands of kids with more common disabilities, such as dyslexia, ADHD and speech impairments. But statistics show that some children with rarer conditions also have been turned away.

The special ed rate has dropped 18.4 percent for Texas kids with traumatic brain injuries, 15.3 percent for hearing impairments and 8.3 percent for visual disabilities. Tweet this link Nationwide, the rates for those categories have slightly decreased, but not by nearly as much as in Texas.

The category of intellectual disability, which includes Down syndrome, has increased slightly in Texas, but advocates said that is because of changes in how schools have classified different disabilities. Texas still provides services to a lower percentage of those students than the national average.

For Sam, an unreservedly friendly boy who spends much of his time playing with a world of animal toys, the denial of special education services was harmful, according to his mother.

The school had claimed that Sam did not need special ed services because he could read on grade level.

Such decisions have become common in Texas, according to dozens of educators, even though federal law has made clear that kids do not need to be failing to get special ed.

Ferrell eventually hired a lawyer and convinced Austin ISD to provide robust services, records show, but it took a year.


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Copyright 2017 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.

14 responses to Texas to 9-year-old blind girl: no educational aid for you!

  1. allison1050 January 3rd, 2017 at 07:37

    It would have been even more of an interesting article if the state had been asked directly to address this situation.

    • Suzanne McFly January 3rd, 2017 at 10:20

      It seems no one holds politicians accountable anymore, how many times has Kellyann or Boris been on the TV rambling off some nonsense without being questioned properly?

      • allison1050 January 3rd, 2017 at 13:40

        I’m out of fingers and toes may I borrow yours?

        • Suzanne McFly January 3rd, 2017 at 14:25

          I have been out of those for months, but I still can make a fist to use.

      • Warman1138 January 3rd, 2017 at 13:45

        More often than not, journalism is fading and failing.

  2. Charlie Seivard January 3rd, 2017 at 08:26

    TEXASS is a place to avoid unless you are rich and white.

  3. Suzanne McFly January 3rd, 2017 at 10:19

    There are laws that ensure every child an education, the most recent one was signed by President Obama in 2015. Someone needs to hold Texas accountable to the federal laws…
    https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-education-secretary-announces-guidance-ensure-all-students-have-equal-access-

  4. basedonfact January 3rd, 2017 at 10:25

    The republican method of cutting costs is to just not provide any services. You voted for this, America

  5. fahvel January 3rd, 2017 at 13:30

    there seems to be a possibility that in texas the bar for what is needy of aid is simply very very low considering the texas mindset and the actions of its people – not all.

  6. Bunya January 3rd, 2017 at 13:32

    That’ll teach that girl to make questionable life choices, like being blind. Sorry, toots, you’re SOL. Now, if she’s ever gang raped and impregnated, she’ll get a lot of attention from the Texass government.

    • Warman1138 January 3rd, 2017 at 13:43

      Till the day of birth, after that, back to SOL.

  7. Red Mann January 3rd, 2017 at 19:28

    Remember the Republican war cry, “This here’s American we don’t take care of our own!” and the ever popular “I got mine f*ck you!”

  8. Lyndia January 3rd, 2017 at 23:30

    This is a damn shame. If I had a child that was special needs, I would move out of Texas. (and I thought Illinois was bad.) Those are some COLD HEARTED DIM WITS, to deny a child services. I am speaking as a certified retired special education teacher, this breaks my heart.

    • whatthe46 January 3rd, 2017 at 23:39

      remember these are the same bastards that are “pro-life.” and unfortunately, she may be one of the same people who keep voting against her own best interest.

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