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Special ed not on district tab By Leah Fillion TISD not required to fund special-need program for T. Don Hutto The Taylor school district is not obligated to pay for or provide services to special-needs children at T. Don Hutto Residential Center, which they have been doing since spring of 2007, according to a decision by the U.S. Department of Education. The Taylor Independent School District has a mutual agreement with Corrections Corporations of America, which owns and operates the detainment center for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, to offer schooling for detained children with special needs. School districts are required to seek out and identify any child with a disability in the community and provide appropriate education, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004. T. Don Hutto, which houses immigrants and their families awaiting asylum or deportation, is a federal facility. However, the education department is classified as a private school, Suzanne Marchman, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said. School districts are not obligated to provide special education services to private schools within their jurisdiction, Marchman said. Because the detention center is a government facility, however, the TEA was unclear who had responsibility, she said. In a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Education in January 2007, the TEA asked the federal agency to determine jurisdiction over T. Don Hutto. Taylor ISD is not obligated to provide special education services to the facility, the department ruled. “The State has no child find obligations under the IDEA for children residing in ICE's residential facility. This is similar to a State's responsibility for children with disabilities in federal prisons,” Patricia Guard, acting director at the Office of Special Education Programs, said in the letter to TEA. Dale Lewis, director of East Williamson County's special education co-op, said previously that educational services can get very expensive, but TISD has not spent a significant amount so far. Since the district began offering their services in spring last year, they have spent less than $5,000 on staff, evaluation and other services, he said. Currently, TISD has not received any additional federal funding for special education and has not been compensated for services provided to the detention center for the handful of special needs students. To date, the district has provided evaluations and other services for three students in the facility. Each evaluation costs roughly $60 per hour depending on the type of evalution. For a full psycho-educational evaluation can cost between $500 to $700. Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for ICE, said she was unaware of any request by TEA to clarify jurisdiction and was unable to comment by the time of this publication. Superintendent Bruce Scott said he was also unaware that the U.S. Department had reached a decision and is waiting to hear from the school district's attorney but said they will abide by the memorandum of understanding until advised by either their attorney or TEA to do otherwise. According to the memorandum, in the event CCA receives federal funding for special education services, the two parties will negotiate compensation. Due to the holidays, TEA has not had time to close the investigation, agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said. TISD will be notified once the investigation has been officially closed, and at that point the state education agency will make a formal recommendations on how to proceed, Culbertson said.
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