13-03-2025
'Transformational': Texas Senate Bill 568 would overhaul special education funding
As a Texas public school student in the 1960s, Brent Hagenbuch was the only second grader in his class who couldn't read. He said he had fallen behind and was at risk of sliding further.
But then his father, a firefighter with a high school education, worked with Hagenbuch's teacher to find an expert doing early research on dyslexia, a learning disorder that affects reading and writing.
The diagnosis was life-altering. After learning skills to adapt, Hagenbuch went on to graduate as his high school's valedictorian, attend the Naval Academy and Stanford University, and run a successful business.
Now, a Republican state senator from Denton, Hagenbuch recounted his story Tuesday to his colleagues on the Senate Committee on Education K-16 in support of a proposal that proponents have called 'transformational' for special education funding in Texas.
Senate Bill 568, by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, would overhaul the formulas Texas uses to budget for its 775,000 students with disabilities, increasing overall funding, offsetting schools' costs for initial evaluations and adding new grants and teacher incentives.
The proposal is 'great,' Hagenbuch said, "because this provides help to so many more kids who need it. I think they have to catch them early, or they lose their confidence."
Hagenbuch told the American-Statesman about a neighbor his age growing up who he believed had dyslexia but whose parents refused to seek a diagnosis for him. The boy didn't graduate from high school. "I think that would have been me" without treatment, he said, choking up.
In the Tuesday education committee hearing, Bettencourt said his 57-page proposal would help boost the state's underfunded special education programs.
'This is a groundbreaking special education bill ... that I think will lead to stunningly better outcomes for a number of our 775,000 school children with disabilities," Bettencourt said.
Based on positive outcomes in other states that fund special education this way, SB 568 would require Texas to classify student need based on an eight-tiered model, rather than on the time they spend in certain educational settings.
'This is effectively a complete overhaul, and (SB 568 has) what I think would be the best intensity model in the country,' Bettencourt told the Statesman. "We were having to face the reality that we needed to do something, because early intervention means so much with these kids."
If the bill is passed, the state would send local school districts money to offset each initial disability evaluation they administer to students, an initiative Bettencourt described as crucial for early identification of disabilities. It would also double the college, career or military readiness outcomes bonus for special education programs.
Committee members expressed unanimous support for the bill, a version of which sailed through the Senate in 2023 but died in the House. It is nearly certain to clear the upper chamber again this year before it heads to the House for consideration.
SB 568 is the culmination of a year of work by the Texas Commission on Special Education Funding, created by the Legislature in 2021 to help the state adapt to a significant increase in new disability diagnoses like dyslexia and autism. The task force identified best practices and crafted legislative recommendations.
Public education consultant and former state Rep. Dan Huberty, one of the special education funding commission's leaders, called the bill 'a legacy builder' for Bettencourt. He noted that the number of students diagnosed with disabilities has increased by 67% since the 2015-16 school year.
'This is going to be transformational for millions of children,' said Huberty, who left the House with his own legacy for leading the 2019 overhaul of state public school finance.
The bill builds on momentum from 2023, when the Legislature passed House Bill 3928 to move students with dyslexia into full special education plans.
During about two hours of testimony Tuesday, students, disability rights groups and teacher associations praised the legislation while requesting the committee to consider some tweaks.
Several speakers asked that the bill's timeline be pushed back a year, so that it can take effect in the 2026-27 school year.
'It's important that we do this right, not rushed,' said Stephen Aleman of Disability Rights Texas. 'We put so much into this; I would hate for it to fall apart because people are scrambling under too much pressure.'
Another request was that the bill allocate more money for initial evaluations, which Cy-Fair school district Superintendent Doug Killian said can reach close to $3,000 per student.
The bill also aims to increase the information parents receive about residential treatment for their children. Parents and guardians are often told they must exhaust outpatient and group home options before they can apply for spots at state supported living centers, which senators said caused unnecessary waiting and difficulty in some cases. SB 568 would require schools to inform parents they can seek spots in living centers.
'It's the parents who are the best decision-makers for their child, not the local authority where they have been told that they must exhaust HCS (Home and Community-based Services) group homes first,' said Stacey Combest, who chaired the Texas Commission on Special Education Funding.
While some witnesses expressed enthusiasm about the change to residential treatment pathways, others expressed concern that it could lead parents to move too quickly to put children in those facilities.
Most state supported living centers 'are not just another educational setting; they are the most restrictive, segregated and costly residential option for children with disabilities,' said Sabrina Gonzalez Saucedo of the ARC of Texas, a group that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
'Prioritizing them in placement discussions without sharing information about community-based supports and services could lead to increased institutionalization and family separations, rather than supporting children in family-based settings," she added.
Bettencourt appeared open to suggestions from witnesses, particularly on pushing back the timeline, but he expressed some frustration that his funding bill didn't make it into law in the 2023 legislative session.
'We're looking at some alternatives, but I'm just glad everybody's on board with general direction, because we've been underfunded and we haven't had an intensity model for a long time,' he said. "I wish this bill would have passed in 2023.'
The Senate education panel also appeared interested Tuesday in advancing several other special education proposals.
SB 1447 by Sens. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, and Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, would allow students with disabilities to use assistive technology electronic devices or software applications that are otherwise prohibited under the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, or SCOPE Act.
Another proposal, SB 57 by Zaffirini, would require public schools to make plans 'to ensure the safety of' disabled students during drills and emergencies.
Eduardo Castillo, a student with dyslexia who will attend St. Mary's School of Law, expressed the hope that SB 568 will remedy what he says was a damaging lack of funding during his own education.
'While my family was blessed enough financially to be able to afford outside special education, what happens to those who weren't afforded the luxury? They simply fall through the cracks,' he said.
Castillo added that nearly 48% of Texas prison inmates are estimated to have dyslexia, a statistic based on a study conducted in 2000 that examined inmates' ability to decode single words.
'You, sir, are exactly what we're trying to find in those 775,000 kids," Bettencourt told Castillo. "Just keep doing what you're doing. Make all of us proud."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Senate bill proposes to overhaul special education funding
