“Public schools are required – to the maximum extent appropriate – to ensure that children with disabilities are educated alongside their nondisabled peers and to follow specific procedures when making placement decisions about how and where children with disabilities are educated,” the department stated in a release.
The statement cites Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), which forbid recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of disability.
“The District is allegedly centralizing certain special education services and proposing to separate students with disabilities from the larger student population beginning in the 2026-27 school year, despite parental concerns that their children should be in general education classrooms where their social skills improve more significantly around their peers.”
Houston ISD began reorganizing the district’s special education department in 2023 under the leadership of then-newly-state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles. Initial changes included layoffs for “itinerant teachers” serving as support staff working with autistic and other special education students. Now, the district is signaling a shift to “specialty schools” for some students with special needs, as first reported by the Houston Chronicle’s Claire Partain.
Earlier this week, the district announced a new model that will require a number of special education students to switch campuses. HISD Deputy Superintendent Kristen Hole shared the changes in a Wednesday YouTube broadcast, per Partain.
“We will still have over half of our campuses that offer self-contained classrooms for students, but some families will be required to move schools to be able to access the services,” Hole said.
The Department of Education’s Friday announcement noted parental concerns among its reasons for the investigation.
“Schools cannot exclude students with disabilities simply because of their disability status,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in the statement. “Placement decisions must be made individually, based on each student’s needs, rather than by blanket policies that segregate students by disability category. The allegations described here are alarming. The Trump Administration will fully investigate this situation and fight to ensure every child with a disability receives the education and support guaranteed under the law.”
More than 20,000 HISD students partake in the district’s special education services. The Texas Education Agency earmarked improvements in HISD’s special education services as one of its requirements for relinquishing its ongoing control of the district.
This is a developing story.