001the record button. Um, welcome everyone to this afternoon's webinar. Um, we're going to preface with a few things. I'm going to pop up an agenda in just a little bit that'll look slightly different than the one that's online. Please know that that will be posted relatively quickly. There's also a notification on the website. If you have friends who are reaching out to you right at this moment saying they are not allowed to get into the webinar, we have reached the webinar capacity. What we are going to ensure is that this recording gets posted as soon as possible so that you are you and your friends will have access to the recording. So please know that we're going to do that as soon as possible. I'm going to share my screen just so that you can
002see the additional topics and know that this new agenda will be posted shortly after the webinar with information. So we will start with the sped funding topic. Then there's going to be some updates that have links that will not be shared in the chat with you, but you will be able to access these links through the updated agenda once the webinar is over. Um, and then we have some day programming updates from Michelle Selenas, some data strategy updates, an update on some early childhood information, and then some SPD updates. So, please know that there's more on the agenda. That's what's posted in the website. Alrighty. Well, funding is our first topic, the most important one. So Kristen, I'm going to turn it over to you. >> All right. Um good afternoon everyone. Um I am
003Kristen Magcguire. I'm the deputy commissioner of um our office of special populations and student supports. So appreciate you being here. Um as Anna said, we'll go ahead and and kind of talk funding first um on our webinar as I know that um you know funding was kind of advertised as a topic for today. Um, I do also want to say that uh we will continue of course to kind of keep special education funding as a standing agenda item uh on these monthly webinars for the foreseeable future. And on uh May uh 7th, we will also start um some Zoom office hours um every Thursday from 9:00 to 9:30 or 4:00 to 4:30. And so we can um make sure that uh the those that Zoom link is essentially just a link you can join when
004uh when that time is. So feel free to just join um either or both of those options and we will do that again starting on May 7th and we'll continue that for the foreseeable future. I will ask um obviously uh the any questions help us uh form and um uh our guidance and inform um uh how we uh train and how we uh collaborate and how we uh calibrate. So please feel free to ask those questions in the Q&A. uh likely just because um it's uh because of our nature of the webinar and with uh so many attendees um we likely won't answer questions directly in this webinar but again we in in a website that I will show you we have an FAQ section and we will be updating that regularly so um please
005make sure to continue to ask questions I'll give you some um places that you can send questions questions as well. So, um I will start just with generally kind of an overview. U many of you or some of you may have heard that the commissioner um uh or commissioner Morath did speak about this topic uh he has a monthly call with superintendent um and he did talk about this topic um uh last Thursday and so this is essentially his um slide deck from that. So, I will go um through this deck to just kind of generally inform you about um uh about the new special education um service intensity model and transitioning over to that system. And um again, we will kind of talk through what resources are available to you. And um again with
006my team, feel free to um jump in if uh if you if you get something um that that I need to uh mention or if you want to shout out anything. So uh first off, of course, is just kind of the general foundation of how we got here. Um uh generally with our numbers of students who have been identified as receiving special education services, that number obviously has continued to uh increase over the last several years. So we have um uh over 900,000 students identified and that are being currently served in public schools. And so, uh, we just, you know, that's kind of the foundation of sort of why how how and why we got here in terms of how we're transitioning over to this, uh, funding model. one of the uh kind of more
007immediate sort of uh reinforcements I guess of financial resources through HB2 uh and Senate Bill 568 um from the 89th session was um to give a a cost offset of $1,000 per initial evaluation completed. And so, um, this is just kind of a an overview over the the last several years of how many initial evaluations were reported, um, to have been completed through our, uh, child fund, um, process. And so, um, uh, essentially the, uh, evaluation cost offset is $1,000 per evaluation. So that is um uh put into the district's or an LEA's kind of summary of finance and that um infusion of funding has already uh started. So generally uh kind of explaining uh in very simple terms where where we are and how we are going to this intensity of services model. Uh
008for decades um uh special education has been funded based on instructional setting. So the instructional setting, you hear it also called an instructional arrangement or instructional setting code. Um this is uh essentially a sort of a list of settings um uh that uh basically reflect where a student is sitting. And so for decades, Texas has used that as its mechanism to fund its state special education aotment. And so um it was essentially kind of based on where that student was sitting as they were receiving their special education services. Now as of course special education um instructional services has uh progressed over the decades and how uh that is delivered um there's you know there there has become that um that that shift and that difficulty of you can't really equate um the intensity of that
009child's um service uh service intensity for special education by where they're sitting. Um and this is just kind of an example of that from the perspective of um you could have a you know two students in a general education classroom. So they are receiving push-in supports and special education through that model. Um one student could have uh you know a 1:1 ratio provider to student ratio. They have a 1:1 uh aid assigned to them. Um they could also have a behavior intervention plan that is uh followed. uh they could have modified content or modified tests that they um are subject to, but they're still getting that service in the general education classroom. You also could have, you know, in this case, student B who uh gets pretty minor support. So they, you know, essentially the
010special ed teacher and the general ed teacher coordinate to lesson plan um and just kind of consult on the child's needs, but uh that child doesn't need necessarily the same intensity of special ed services as student A. In the case of uh sort of what we're transitioning from is currently those two students are pay get the same amount through the state special education allotment. And so what this transition to the new intensity of service model is is basically trying to really look at student A individually and saying what are the services that this child needs in order um to access or in order to access FAPE which is free appropriate public education. Those are the services that are documented in that student's individualized education program or IEP. So, it's essentially saying what are those services
011regardless of setting, regardless of where they're receiving it and then trying to fund based on that intensity um instead of where they are sitting. So, with that you can kind of just see this is a very sort of generalized example um but with the current system it's very complicated. Uh it's a very complicated formula from the perspective of BA stands for basic aotment. Uh we also have in statute what's called a small midsize adjustment. So basically if you are a district of a or an LEA of a certain size you get uh essenti a a sort of extra weight to your basic aotment and then funding is based on attendance the students attendance. So in this case you know 170 days present um uh using uh 180 days as kind of the base factor of
012uh possibilities you have that you get that where that 0.944 ADA so that's average daily attendance with the instructional arrangement you have um this this idea of resource room so uh there are contact hours and uh full-time equivalent weights and so you have weights not only in the education code But you also have these contact hour multipliers in the student attendance accounting handbook. You can see how this gets, you know, kind of very uh long and confusing through that process. Uh but generally what what has to be done is you have to trans transition all of that information into a weighted full-time equivalent. You have to do what's also called the regular program offset um which we'll go through here in a second um a little bit to give more information on what that is.
013uh and then that generates essentially their um special ed allotment plus their basic allotment. So you can see that foundation school program tier one entitlement of that uh 11,738. Again this is these are just examples. Um, of course with the intensity of services, uh, we still have, of course, the basic aotment, the small midsize, still basing it on attendance, but in this case, we will just generally have a weight associated with a tier, and we'll go through those tiers here in a second. So that weight is is assigned to the particular tier that the child is assigned to. Then uh you also have to figure out how many minutes of the day uh in the instructional day are spent in a special education setting. Again, that goes to the regular program offset which we'll which
014I'll mention um again here in a second. Um and that is uh essentially kind of uh deducted proportionately from the uh overall um regular program allotment. Then we'll have these concepts of service groups which are added on dollar amounts. And so you can kind of see how obviously still complicated but much less complicated than uh you know the current structural structure with the instructional arrangement um and those weighted FTEEs. So again it's just kind of a a different way of of thinking how to uh calculate this. So I'll go through a little bit of just the foundations of the new system. So in the statute which is in the Texas Education Code um 48.102 102 um as of September 1st of 26 uh we have essentially the bookends of the tiers are established in statute.
015So tier one um in the education code says these are students who just receive who receive speech therapy as their only instructional service. So one thing um in Texas currently um speech therapy can be um an instructional service under special education or it can be a related service um under that special education and related service lens. So in the case of um students who are receiving only speech therapy as their only instructional service their only specially designed instruction that is tier one. So um some of you uh you know from the from the school district and the um school system angle know like uh kind of equate that with our zero zeros. So our 0000 um uh instructional arrangement students who are only 000 um don't have any other instructional arrangements that would end up
016being sort of your tier one. Then tier eight is residential placement. Um and again that the idea of that to put that in statute is to think um kind of going from the sort of least um uh the least sort of expensive um so to say the least intense um service to the most intense service. And so those uh tier one and tier eight are defined. The rest of that uh the rest of those tiers, tier 2, tiers 2 through 7 will be defined um by TEA through commissioner rules and through what you have um available to you now, which is generally the framework um that funding framework. And then statute does require and 48.1021 of the education code again effective September 1st to 26 at least for service groups. service groups are that add-on
017um ancillary funding. So these are these will be flat dollar amounts. We don't know what those dollar amounts yet uh dollar amounts are yet. Uh again because we have to collect that data uh to then determine u what the weights and the dollar amounts will be again goes from lower dollar amount to higher dollar amount. Statute says at least four uh we have developed five. So you'll see that um when we start talking about those service groups then as I mentioned there is still the general education or regular program offset that is in uh TEC 48.051. So basically what that statute says is here's the basic allotment but the time spent outside of the general education setting for students in uh CTE career and technical education or in special education uh they have they're that
018allotment is essentially kind of proportionately deducted for that time spent outside the general education setting. So if you remember how how we currently fund on instructional arrangement based on the wear that instructional arrangement code was basically used for uh determining um the general ed offset plus just generally you know the funding itself. And so now we've sort of separated these ideas into tiers service groups and then dealing with the offset separately. So that's where the the setting comes in. Um the rest of the time the setting doesn't uh always matter except in those overrides that we've talked about. All right. So when accounting for all of these changes, what what chap uh what education code chapter 48.1022 says is all right. So given all of these changes and during this transition year in 2627, the
019total uh special education aotment from the state needs to be approximately $250 million more statewide um in 2627 than um than under the prior system, which when we say prior, we're meaning the instructional arrangement system. So we'll go through here in a minute kind of what that will look like in 2627. So here's a general description of tiers. So um as you can imagine again we're going from sort of least intense concept to most intense. Um so two you know you can kind of see how those go up to uh more complex and uh more pervasive services uh through those tiers. So here's kind of the meat and how these tiers will be assigned. So when you're looking at tiers of intensity, um the uh the the um the person completing this activity to determine
020the tiers of intensity is reviewing an IEP and they were they are looking at it from five domains. We have curriculum and instruction, behavioral, communication, independent functioning, and personal care or health services or supports. And so there are five domains that have to be rated essentially based on uh how significant um that intensity of service delivery is for that particular student. Now within each of those domains the statute requires us to consider four factors uh in well in each tier um these factors have to be uh considered. So uh you have the type, frequency and nature of services. You have essentially whether um you have any particular required certifications or special licenses or other kind of special qualifications uh that are required for the student if there are any identified um provider to student ratios.
021So basically um for them to receive FAPE that free appropriate public education that IEP is documenting that that service delivery has to be delivered within a particular provider to student ratio you would be considering that in your um uh rating and then if there any equipment or technology required for the services. So as you are going through these domains and these factors there will be essentially kind of a a a zero to threepoint scale. Zero is that that particular there's no support required for FAPE. Now that is one thing that like everybody will have to kind of get used to in the sense of while all of these things this the student um uh may benefit from right what we are really looking at is what is required by that student's IEP um for purposes
022of you know what is that unique individualized specially designed instruction for that student um as documented in the IEP that is required for that free appropriate public education. So they will be you scoring essentially zero that it's not required for fake and then there will be descriptions of what minimal kind of services look like moderate and significant. So in the service groups um the service groups as I mentioned before the statute says at least four we've developed five. So service groups um essentially we have kind of two two groups here. We have one through three that go together and then four to five that go together. So one through three um you have uh is basically around related services. So these are the things like um OT you know occupational therapy, physical therapy um uh
023specific uh counseling by you know school psychologist or uh orient orientation and mobility um uh training that that type of thing. So these are related services that are documented again in the IEP. Um and so it is based on essentially kind of a total amount of minutes over a six week period that sort of determines whether you are are at a service group one, two, or three with the exception of special transportation or parent counseling since those don't necessarily uh align with kind of a minutes um delivery concept. So service group one um you see there service group two service group three so a student could only be one two or only be eligible for one two or three in this com in this uh group service groups four and five are based on does
024this student have a one one so a provider to student ratio that's required again for FAPE um if they require a onetoone assigned to them um at least 50% of the school Okay. Um, they will either be a four, so it's 50% and less than 80% or at least 80%. So, it's a four or a five. Now, some students may not have any service groups. Um, some students may have a 1, two or three and also a four or a five. But, um, uh, there is, you know, you will be kind of walking through that um when you, uh, determine the tiers and the service groups. So uh why now? Like why is this information out now? Why is you know what what what resources are available to you? So one thing to keep in
025mind of course is that as I mentioned to you the tiers and the service groups essentially have to go through the commissioner rulemaking process um which are uh you know those rules will be proposed um here fairly soon. However, what we've published for you already is essentially the framework that will be used. Now while there may be um you know a few fluctuations to that um uh you know it is it is best to go ahead and start getting uh yourself acclimated and used to um this funding framework so that you can go ahead and start um collecting data going into the 2627 school year. And I'll tell you kind of why that is here here in a second. But what um what we've uh provided along with a lot of other resources is we've
026created kind of an online tool. So it's sort of just a you know a a a logic built um kind of tool for you to go through uh these you know domains those factors that I you know talked about and uh you know it sort of walks you through that process and ultimately determines for you what that child's tier um and any eligible service groups would be. One thing of course that I always want to just you know emphasize is in this tool where you see these you know info icons with the I make sure that you read those very very carefully as those really give you the foundation and the instructions on how to rate those and then any other you know information that's important to that particular topic area. And so we'll go
027through and I'll show you this um tool here in a little bit. those of you who are school systems. Um it is uh it you know one of the things that this tool will help you with is um to it will allow you to save records. So as you are entering um a student like as you have an IEP in front of you right you there is a student section that will ask you for essentially their local ID and their 10 digit unique ID that's assigned um uh you know from the state. It will ask you what their current instructional setting code is whether they receive speech therapy or not. Um, and then it will essentially, you know, it will walk you through, um, again, as you're looking at the IEP, you will start giving
028those ratings based on what's in the IEP and what matches up. At the end of that, you'll be able to save a record. And so, let's say you're you have uh, you know, um, you know, 10 IEPs that you want to go ahead and start, you know, working through. Um you would save um each of those records when you're you know finished. Hit the reset so that it um uh clears up. You can do your second student, your third student. You save save and then you would export to Excel. So this allows you to export to Excel um so that you can start uh having essentially a a mechanism to um you know to keep track of those IEPs that you've gone through. to collect. Now this is uh this does not save anything for
029you. Nothing is sent automatically to tea. So it's very important that um like if you because as soon as your browser is closed essentially that that that um uh sort of time that you're on here is done. So, you know, we would make sure we would recommend that you export um as soon as you're kind of uh done with with the particular activity or you get pulled in the other million directions um that you'll be going in. Um and then eventually uh you know, you would uh create kind of one master Excel file um for your records. So again, sort of the long-term uh goal for this transition to the new system is that those student information systems and IEP systems would kind of uh have some of this logic embedded into their programs. Obviously,
030that's not going to be the case for 2627 as this is new. We're all transitioning and it is a big change, but that is kind of ultimately the goal as this new funding system gets off the ground. Um and then again TA has established that web page um that we'll go through go to here in a second um around giving you a lot of resources around the system itself the funding framework as I mentioned we have FAQs um and we will continue to update that regularly uh in that contact training dates and other supports there at the bottom you'll find um the that Zoom link to those office hours I mentioned as well as any other trainings that we have. So again, uh as I mentioned, here's kind of the information on the uh uh
031office hours. We also have an email address that we've established. So um if you uh email spedf funding at tea.t texas.gov, um uh we have uh we can uh update uh our FAQs u based on questions that we get through that. and uh just appreciate as we go through this transition obviously any questions we get um the better we can uh uh give guidance. So in terms of uh funding for 2627 as I mentioned um in uh education code in 48.1022 it talks about this specifically this 2627 school year. So it talks about adjusting the formulas um that essentially um whatever um it's a 250 million statewide increase for 2627 than what would have been the case essentially had the had the funding formulas not changed. So because 2627 has that target funding based upon
032prior law during 2627 only what we're school systems are going to report both systems. So what's important for us to get a full year's worth of data is to report both instructional arrangements and the new service intensity. So you So a minute ago I said this is why we've gotten everything out now is because what is what we are going to need is that by the first six week PE's attendance submission deadline which is October 8th. We will need um uh every student who has an IEP to have also a service intensity tier and a service group if they're eligible for that and their minutes per day in sped reported through PS. So as I mentioned with that tool and I said hey the Excel file helps you start organizing that and you have that
033data so that when you are ready when the you know when your CIS makes uh 26 27 kind of available for um uh data entry then you would have that information. So again, I would recommend that you start um you know getting kind of acclimated to this framework and start um reviewing any IEPs that have already been um finished for 2526 and have established those 26 27 services to go ahead and start looking through those so that um by October 8th um in that first uh attendance submission you have the data that will be necessary to um submit uh through PES. What we are also asking and th u you know those of you or any of you who were on the superintendent call um the commissioner referred to this as a pilot. We're not
034really doing a pilot, but what we are asking for is um and what we're hoping for is that we can at least uh get um you know essentially at least 15% of the overall um you know special ed populations worth of data by August 14th. So part of what the statute requires is that um uh we have to give the legislative budget board who is that's the entity that kind of recommends the overall budget to the legislature. We have to give them um uh projections by October 1st. Um and so uh if you know and as you see here again that first attendance submission is October 8th. Um so uh while we will while we will have the October 8th and ongoing data that is submitted um which will absolutely help us as we go
035through um uh you know the start of the 2027 legislative session. What we need is anybody, any district, any school system who is willing to submit any of the data that they've already collected again through that Excel process through the through the tool if they would send us whatever data they have um in that Excel spreadsheet by August 14th. And so we've established a share file um for uh so that secure transmission for districts um to send that to us. So again it is um it is it it does not have to be your total student population. Um really just any early data that we can get so that we have um more accurate estimates to give to the legislative budget board we would absolutely appreciate. Otherwise, what you have to just be ready for
036is that first six week um PE's attendance submission. And again, that due date is October 8th. All right. So, funding transition for 2627. This is just kind of a different way of looking at that. So basically your estimated funding for the cash flow for um 2627 will be uh based on sort of the old instructional arrangements plus that pr-rated 250 million statewide increase. So we will kind of base that on estimates that we get um rolling forward the 2526 data and then now that we have six weeks attendance submissions we will be able to sort of update that um on a rolling forward basis. Um and then um you know 2627 actual payments which of course you don't um truly settle up until September of 27 um is u kind of based on both systems
037um so that um uh we have that again that full year's worth of data and so we'll be uh combining those two systems. So I will say again for this school year for not this school year we're still in the current one for 2627 um and 2627 uh only what we um with this formula essentially what we are saying is that um that every school system will get at least the same amount that they would get under the instructional arrangement system. So no one will get less than what they um like let's say the formula didn't change no one you know everyone will get at least what they would generate um in 2627 under the instructional arrangement system. So that is um what we will take into account as we get this data through the
038year and then as we do um that near final um settle up in um 20 in September 27th. So again kind of next steps of course is looking at the data elements that are necessary. Again we have tiers of intensity service groups number of minutes in sped those are what's going to be required um for the funding to be calculated and that's what will be required for that first six weeks PE submission by October 8th. Um and then again that volunteer submission we are just asking for anyone who has um early data that they could submit to us from the Excel spreadsheets um to send that through a share file link by August 14th. Um the rest of this kind of goes through generally just some more detail around um kind of the timeline of
039current year 2627 and um 2728. But uh before I get out of my piece um let me just show you again uh generally this am I still sharing? Yes. Okay. I was like, I don't know where where my window goes sometimes. Um, okay. So, this is on Texas bed support. Again, this is kind of the main web page that will house our guidance around this. And so, um, you have again just kind of understanding the model, uh, goes through the intensity tiers, the service groups, and then, uh, that tool that I mentioned of course is here. Um, so you can click on that and then again it sort of walks you through here's sort of the purpose here's sort of what we're doing. Also here embedded is another way to submit questions and feedback. So
040if you're using this you can always submit it through there. Um again reading any of these that you have uh you know that have more information is going to be beneficial to the user um so that you can understand um you know very clearly kind of what the intent and what the um sort of foundations are. Again this is that student information section. So, if you are a school system and you are going to save records and ultimately uh um uh export into Excel, you'll need to fill this part out. Uh one thing I will point out is in in the in the uh guidance that we issued on Thursday, last Thursday, we did say that the tool does not have this information, the average number of minutes per day in a sped setting. We
041did add that um just this week. So that is in there. So we will update our guidance to essentially say um that it is in there. And the reason we added that of course is to just help you have all three of the data elements that you need as you save over and export into Excel. Uh and then it goes through the tier intensity. Of course, this sort of override is what we had talked about as kind of the um uh the piece about speech therapy as their only instructional service and then the residential placement because again those are um uh defined by statute. What is not in statute, but what is different is if you do have a child placed by their AR committee in a day placement program, um we are saying in
042this framework that that is automatically a tier 7. Um and uh so you can we still of course which you'll see this important reminder reminder is you still want to go through and rate um the supports uh just for your own uh uh knowledge and it helps you just kind of know what the student needs are. But that is kind of why why that overwrite option exists. And then again you'll see the domains those factors I mentioned. Again, this walks you through how you decide is this a no, is this a zero, a one, a two, or a three. You will give it a uh you will uh rate that. Um I will say uh also within these domains, whatever your highest factor that you rate um equates to the domain score. So if you
043have one moderate, then it's automatically going to be a two. If you have one significant, it's automatically going to be a domain score of a three. So again, important to go through all four of these factors so that you really can get a feel for what um is uh the nature of that student's services and service need. Uh but that's essentially how that is um determined. You'll go through each of those domains and then um again with service groups it will ask you do they receive related services you'll go through the questions and then do they have that onetoone provider. Here again is where you save records and export to Excel. So that's the tool. Um you also have um a how-to guide for the tool. So this is this will be very helpful um
044for those of you getting used to the tool and then you also have the framework and so basically this sort of PDF version um is really what's embedded in the tool but in kind of this narrative form. So it helps sort of you know I know I know I personally like to look at this whole thing as uh you know kind of absorb it as um a full document uh and then go back to the tool but it is um basically all of this is embedded into the tool but it is there um as a as a resource for you. Again, frequently asked questions. There are some already here. We will continue to update that. And then, of course, the contact training and supports gives you um the email address. Uh gives you our general
045webinars and newsletter page for the the monthly webinars and then gives you that Zoom meeting link for um Zoom office hours. Um let me think my team. Did I forget anything? critical or say anything incorrectly trying to give the weight time. >> No, did not say anything correctly and did not miss anything critical. There are quite a few questions that are coming through um in the question and answer section. we will be adding those and then updating our FAQ. Um, but I think some of the the more pertinent ones that we can answer right away. No, you do not have to use this tool in order to come up with those service um group with the the tiered funding or with the service groups. You can use the framework itself which is the printable document
046and then make your own spreadsheet if that is what you would like to do as a school system that is perfectly fine. So it is not necessary that you absolutely have to use that. But if you use this the framework um and make up your own, it tells you at the end of the framework as she's scrolling, it gives the numbers that you would use and how you would report that for that intensity model. Um and also none of this information from the tool or from the framework are going to be directly sent to PES. So that is not something that is currently capable with what we have because this is web based. So it will not be sent to your PE's system and I think that's what I' I've seen quite a few questions
047around that. >> Okay, thanks David. Appreciate that. Um so yes, definitely appreciate all the questions. um and we will use those um to update our FAQ and update uh guidance. So, um, again, this is a a we we realize this is a is a is a big shift and a big change. Um, and so we are, uh, you know, committed to try to help, um, uh, you know, help you understand the process and which is why, of course, we're doing the weekly, um, you know, check-ins and office hours and keeping this just generally on the radar just um, for, you know, obviously the next several months. So, uh, again, please continue to ask questions and, um, we will do our best to, uh, help you help you through this. So, I appreciate, um, you guys
048joining and I know we have other things on the agenda, so I will turn it back over to Anna for the next person. >> It's me. >> Okay, I'll turn it over to Ed. >> Yeah, it's all right. Um, so I'm I'll be really quick with just a couple things. Um we'll send out the we'll send out the links. Um we'll post them actually we can post them on the webinar page as well. Um wanted to give two updates because you know I've come to the group a couple times and shared about uh the TEFL program and ESAs as we were going through. Um the one update I'm sharing and I'll share my screen as I pull it up. Um the comproller did release some information today. It's it's pretty brief, but they did release
049some information today about um what uh page is showing on what they will be doing as far as um this is not doing what it wants. Um their appeals process. So, let me get this to actually open the way it's supposed to. Um they they released some information today on their website about um how they'll handle appeals and what that'll look like. So um we're sharing the link so you all can see um how that's working and how that's going to operate. Um now now the work. All right. Now it's sharing correctly. So this is what they posted today. Um as far as um how an appeal can be done. um the they gave um the areas where a decision can be appealed. Um they specifically noted that in this document that you know families
050have 30 days um schools schools can also appeal if they have something that they believe was an error. Um everything is going directly through Odyssey the controllers vendor and um that's how they'll process it. So, um, if you have families outreaching or folks outreaching you all and your school districts about how a appeal will be handled, um, you should be able to direct them just back to, um, this this document and the Odyssey page because they'll have everything else on there. As we get more information from them, we'll share it. Um, but I just wanted to make sure that there was um, knowledge that this came out today. And then the other item I will share um as we get ready and we go into session, we wanted to gather some information related to um
051kind of on the heels of some of the funding topics. Um obviously legislative offices hear feedback um all the time and have questions. One of the things we were asked to do was just get gather some general opinion and perspective um really quickly on how folks think um special education funding um what impacts funding or what impacts um how funding um may not meet the needs all the time. So we pulled together a Qualric survey really quickly. Um we'll put the link out as well. It's four questions, but what we did is we pulled um the top five drivers based on research and and kind of highlighted what those are. So, when you open the survey, that's what it opens to. It'll show you that we're seeking information to understand uh perspectives on the drivers
052around special education costs. Um and then it kind of goes through the top five drivers. And then there's four questions. Um first question is just how overall do you agree um with those are those five factors or drivers? Um then asks you to rank them and then for the one that you ranked number one what do you think is the biggest issue related to that? And then finally are there any did we miss any? Is there anything that we missed that you would want us to add? And that's it. We're not capturing any other demographic data information about your district. Um we'll have this open for about a week. Um we plan to close it Monday uh next Monday and pull data from it so we can just start to use that from for some
053of our other things. It's just opinion data and perspective so we can use that to drive some of our other materials. And that is all I have. I can turn it over to Anna. >> Perfect. Thank you. And I'll make sure that the updated agenda with that link gets posted today so that they have it knowing that the survey closes on Monday. So, um, next up we have Michelle Selena sharing some information. >> All righty. Thanks so much, Anna. Good afternoon, everybody. Let me get Whoops. I apologize for that. >> We like your picture. >> That was a cute picture. >> Thank you. My My son drew that when he was in elementary school. So, nice little uh brain break for everybody for a second there. Look at my artwork. Okay, here we go. That's
054it. Okay. Um, and let me just get this into slideshow. All righty. There we go. Okay. Excellent. Okay. Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon everybody. Thanks so much for joining. My name is Michelle Selenus. I'm the director of day in residential programs here at TEA and today I'm going to be be discussing some more funding information but this is a new funding opportunity um for eleas's launching in the 2627 school year and it's related to an initiative uh around capacity building for day programs. So my SE session objectives today, the purpose is to review guidance related to new a new day program funding initiative that came out of the 89th legislative session. Um with the overarching goal today of sharing out process and timeline for year 1 funding. Um this will be starting in the 267
055school 2627 school year. So just trying to get out ahead of that a little bit so you all can kind of understand the opportunity and what to expect. Um so just an overview of the cooperative funding program. The overarching goal here is capacity building with a focus on increasing availability and outcomes for students with intensive support needs. Um so these allotment monies are intended to expand county level capacity. TEA will be funding up to one program or co-op per county per year. And we'll talk a little bit more about that a couple slides from now. Um, and these programs to be designated as one of these programs to receive funding, you have to comply with commissioner rule for day programs as well as meet proposed minimum standards that will be effective the 2627 school year.
056And just to kind of take um zoom out a little bit and look at our current statewide capacity for day programs, I went ahead and and included residential programs here as well, just to kind of give everybody an idea of capacity statewide for students with intensive support needs. To kind of um align to what Kristen was talking about earlier, these day programs would be our tier 7 programs. Right now they're identified as an instructional arrangement 60 and these residential programs are tier eight. Right now identified as instructional arrangement 50. But what you can see here in this visual is that we kind of have really large portions of the state that have no day or residential capacity. Um and what this we've been doing this work for um at least I've been doing this work
057for about eight years now. And what we've seen is this really creates LRE challenges for districts that are either kind of in these, you know, panhandle, West Texas, South Texas, and even central Texas. Um, what we see happening is students who are in these areas with no capacity, generally they have to leave their community to access FAPE over here somewhere. And that's generally in a residential program. So you might have a kiddo from the panhandle that needs um day program support um but there's no capacity or access there. So a lot of those a lot of times those kids might end up in residential placement. So with this program we're really hoping to build capacity kind of more statewide and allow students to um stay closer to home in their local uh community and regular
058campus. So, some of the highlights at a glance here, um the allotment amount for this program would be for a designated program $250,000 the first year and then if they remain eligible for subsequent funding in following years, they would get $100,000 annually as a baseline. And then there's this kind of additional bonus of 150,000 if you have at least three students enrolled. Um and we'll talk about that a little more um in um some later slides. Um but in terms of who is eligible for this aotment program, regional ESC's, school districts or open enrollment charter. So this is limited to public entities. Um in terms of qualification for designation as a program, you must comply with commissioner rule for day programs. You must serve all districts and charters in the county that your program would
059operate unless waved by the commissioner. And then you must meet our minimum standards for day programs. In terms of program limits, TEA cannot designate more than one program per county per year and no more than 20 statewide per year. Um, so it's it's pretty limited. Um, and it's just one per county. Um, so we're going to drill down a little more on kind of eligibility and what we're hoping to see from these programs. In terms of intended outcomes, I've kind of already gone over the purpose, but just to kind of re reiterate here, but that the purpose of this program is to expand day programming capacity for students requiring intensive supports or services. Um, in terms of instructional impact, these programs would be expected to implement evidence-based, comprehensive, and intensive academic, social, emotional, behavioral, and
060functional supports. In terms of overarching system goals, um, again, we're really looking to increase local options at the county level and improve outcomes for students who require services beyond what can be supported on a regular school campus. So these programs are essentially going to be kind of more highly specialized and designed around students with intensive support needs. And in terms of reintegration, these programs will be operating under the same framework that our current day in residential providers um must follow. um which is to really the goal is to equip these students to transition back to a less restrictive environment and again kind of get them back in their local community and hopefully back on a regular campus. Um, drilling down on eligibility a little more, um, any qualifying program is eligible to apply as a
061firstear program as long as they operate in alignment with our cooperative funding guidelines and commissioner rule for day placement programs. Um, so we kind of call out this firstear program here. Um, statute explicitly calls out firstear programs as um, who would be eligible to apply. So here we just kind of wanted to give you a little more context around what we consider a firstear program and what rule will consider a firstear program. That's going to be either a new or existing day program who is operating in alignment again with our cooperative guidelines as well as commissioner rule. So we would expect a qualifying program to meet the definition of a public day placement program as outlined in commissioner rule for day placements and the qualifying program must also be established again by a public entity.
062So a school district open enrollment charter or ESC. In terms of minimum requirements for these programs, they must align with the proposed minimum standards that will be effective for the 2627 school year. And just as a call out here, all of these um um details around these minimum requirements um will be housed on our current day and residential web page and I do have that linked at the bottom of this um presentation. Um so that's where you will go to kind of look for resources or just find um more information as well as our contact information. Um we're really encouraging um collaborative efforts. Again, because we have this maximum of one approved program per county, we're really encouraging ESC ESC's and ELEAs to collaborate um within the proposed county of operation. Um so if you
063have Harris County which is a huge county um and a we have a lot of interested applicants when possible we're really um encouraging ESC's and eleas to collaborate um and really look at reach and student impact and again you know try and um join forces when possible. So, our timeline um for getting our first year of funding out, I'll start us right here in April. So, right now, we're doing our previews of this information and webinars. Um later this month, we will also be releasing a TAA, not only on cooperative funding, which I'm going over today, but also these minimum standards um that I keep on referencing that will be effective the 26 27th school year. And those will apply to both day and residential pro programs. But within the context of today, just the
064day programs. In May, we hope to have our application open by miday. Um and later um in the month of May, we will be hosting some Q&A sessions. We're going to have office hours um in hopes of providing technical assistance to interested applicants. Um at the end of June, our application will close mid July. It's our goal to have pre preliminary award notifications out and then actual funding for year 1 would happen late August, early September um with applicable rule adoption. Um, so kind of as Kristen was saying earlier, we're planning a lot of these things, but rule isn't actually effective around these things until late August, early September. So within two weeks of that rule effective date, we're going to be getting awards out for, um, designates. So, next steps for you all. Um,
065based on the information I went over today, um, and I know I kind of went quickly, but um, what are your questions? Are there any areas you feel like, you know, TEA needs to provide more clarification on? I will say we are going to be providing a lot more clarification around the county level operation. Um, given that some LEAs um, span more than one county, we realize that. So, we are building some technical assistance and resources um around um kind of how to how we're operating that um in light of this being a one program per county um designation. Also, is there any regional context that we missed that you would like us to take into consideration? And just kind of more generally, are there any areas you'd like to see covered in more detail
066throughout this process? Everything's happening really quickly. Um, my team will certainly be here um to help kind of shepherd this process along. We're really excited about this program given kind of those, you know, portions of the state that I pointed out earlier with just no capacity at all. Um, so looking forward, um, to get this off the ground and to help where we can. Um, please email questionstoday program funding at tea.t texas.gov. This mailbox is exclusively for this program. Um, so if you email anything here, my team will certainly get it and address it and or add um, you know, FAQs or ways to kind of answer questions um, that we're getting from the field. So, here is just a a statute reference resource. Um, I just wanted to give everybody kind of a quick
067snapshot of the actual statute that is guiding this work. It's really quite short. Um, which, um, I was very thankful for. Um, but it's nice to have handy if you just kind of want to review the statute as a whole. And even in relation to what I went over today, um, in terms of giving us feedback or helping us develop more, um, clear resources, do you feel like there's portions here that just weren't weren't addressed adequately that we can, um, push out some additional guidance on? All righty, that's it for me today. Thank you so much. Again, here is our email address and this is a link to our web page. And again, all the resources will live on this web page here that um relate to the um aotment program I went over today.
068Thanks so much y'all. >> Thank you, Michelle. And that site link will be in the agenda um when it's updated as well. So, appreciate it. Donna, I'm turning it over to you. >> Okay. Thanks, Anna. Hello, everyone. My name is Donna Holmes and I'm the state performance plan coordinator and I work with the data strategy and reporting division. And this afternoon I'm I'm just going to take a few minutes to point out a couple of resources that were recently highlighted in the March uh special education newsletter. Uh we want to make sure all schools are aware they're available. Uh these resources were designed uh to support schools when they are submitting data in the TSDS special education data system or speds summer submission. And as a reminder, the sped summer submission streamlines the data collection
069process for reporting four of our state performance plan indicators. And those include indicator 7, preschool outcomes, indicator 11, timely initial evaluation, indicator 12, early childhood transition, and um indicator 13, secondary transition. And the first resource that I want to highlight is our sped summer submission guidance document. and it includes guidance on how the indicator data are submitted in TSPS along with some additional information for each indicator including the indicators measurement and inclusion criteria uh the reporting requirements, the promotion logic in TSDS data sources and flowcharts as well as a frequently asked question section for each of those indicator. Uh, I'd also like to mention our second resource which is our unique ID for non-enrolled children document. And that's going to provide uh some information on the TSDS unique ID requirements when you're submitting data for
070indicator 11 and 12. Uh both of these documents are posted on our SP indicator web pages and you'll you can find direct uh links to those documents in that March newsletter article and Anna's also going to add those to our updated agenda. So there'll be a couple of places you can just um link directly to those. And uh just as a final reminder, uh our sped summer submission is currently open and the data is going to be due uh July the 30th. Um remember also that you can reach out to your special education um TSDS champion at your ESC if you need any support or if you have any questions about this summer submission. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Ann. >> Thank you, Donna. I appreciate it. All right, Mandy, you
071are up next. And so once Mandy's done, then we'll get with the SPD. So, two more topics. Okay. Thanks, Anna. Um, I'm going to share my screen. So, my name is Hi, everyone. My name is Mandy Young and I am a uh special education technical assistance manager at TEA. And one of the work streams that I oversee is um early childhood special education or ECSE. And today I'm going to walk you through um House Bill 2310, which was, if you don't know, was just passed during the most recent legislative uh session. And it direct it directs the uh state agencies to work together to improve early learning opportunities for those young children who have disabilities. And I have a very important ask for you to give us some feedback regarding the strategic plan which is
072required by House Bill 2310 through a survey. And um I'm going to share the link to the survey later in the later in the um presentation, but I I know that Anna can add it to the agenda too um so that you can get that link later. Um but the first thing I want to talk about is what it is. So, House Bill 2310 requires a 4-year strategic plan developed together by Texas Education Agency, Health and Human Services Commission, and the Texas Workforce Commission. And the emphasis here is on coordination. So, making sure that all these systems are working together more intentionally so that we can support those young children with disabilities. And at the center of this plan is this idea of improving early learning opportunities and creating this seamless experience for families from
073birth through um school entry. And when we talk about this kind of coordination, what we're really talking about is inclusion. So making sure children with disabilities or developmental delays can participate meaningfully in that early childhood settings. And then families don't experience that unnecessary gap or barriers. um along the way. So, House Bill 2310 is very specific about what must be included in the strategic plan that we're creating. So, we're required to include strategies for the inclusion of children with disabilities um in those early childhood settings. We also want to describe existing barriers to effective inclusion of children with disabilities in the programs. And then we want to make recommendations for improvement as well as recommendations for uh to improve provider staffing the training sustainability that just effectiveness across public schools those child care programs early
074childhood intervention services. So this what this is why today's discussion around those barriers and solutions are really critical. Um so these are the core recommendations uh for action specifically named by House Bill 2310. And at a high level the bill focuses on strengthening the systems that families and providers rely on every day. And that starts with improving provider staffing, training, that's sustainability. Um and then another major emphasis is on making better use of existing funding and resources. So, it isn't just about funding new dollars, but it's about how are we going to coordinate and what do we already have in in smarter and more aligned ways. And uh the bill also calls out the importance of streamlined transitions for families. Um especially during some of those most challenging points, moving from ECI, the early childhood
075intervention to ECSE and then from ECSE into school age uh special education services. And uh this is where those families experience a lot of confusion and gaps. And then finally, there's that strong focus on improving collaboration and partnerships across early childhood programs, those intervention services. Um because inclusion can't happen in isolation. It it has to we require this shared responsibility across all systems. And so many of these recommendations, they reflect on on work that's already happening across Texas. But um what this strategic plan is aiming to do is to bring those efforts all together and then create alignment and strengthen them. So um as we move from that discussion, I want to show you uh how how you and some others across Texas can can be involved in shaping the strategic plan. So in order
076that we gather a broad meaningful input input um house bill 2310 requires multiple opportunities for stakeholder feedback and but the primary way that we're collecting this is through a stakeholder survey or survey. Um and this survey is designed to capture those experiences from families, educators prov child care providers all across Texas. So, uh, your feedback is going to help us identify what those strategies are, what the barriers are, highlight what's working, um, shape policies that support inclusion and transition to be a lot smoother. Um, so our biggest ask, my biggest ask today is simple. It's super powerful. Would you please take this survey and then share it with um, your professional and personal networks? Um, it's anonymous. It takes about 10 to 12 minutes. It launched on April 17th, that was last Friday, and it
077will remain open until May 3rd. Um, and just a reminder to protect the integrity of this data, we we're asking that you don't share this on social media. We don't want any bots involved, but share it directly with families, with your schools, child care providers. Um, and uh remember this this link will also go up in the agenda uh later. So, in addition to that survey that we have out right now, we're gathering other opportunities for engagement. Uh I we spoke at the Texas Early Learning Council meeting last week. We will also speak at the uh early childhood intervention advisory committee on April 29th. And we're also having some parent and provider focus groups because we we want to capture all of those perspectives. Um and then lastly, we're going to gather all of that
078feedback. Um, and then TEA, HHSC, TWWC, they're going to finally, we're all going to finalize this four-year strategic plan. It has to be published by September 1st of 2026. And then, um, feedback summaries will include the plan. Uh, we'll we'll have a develop a communication and sustainability strategy to keep it relevant over time. And then just FYI, we're we're also partnering with UT's Austin's Texas Institute for Child and Family Well-being to support the research and all the writing. Last, uh I really value your perspectives. Um I'm open for any questions or comments. So if you have any additional questions come up or if you'd like to share any ideas, uh you can contact us at that strategic plan hb2310.ex.gov. Okay. Thanks, Anna. >> Thank you, Mandy. Appreciate it. Um, and last on the agenda, we
079have our friends that are going to share information on SPD. >> Hannah, I'm going to share my screen. >> So, if you want to introduce yourself that way, it's recorded and people know exactly who you are and what you do. >> Yes, absolutely. Uh, so, um, I will just share with you first, um, our first slide. So, the special education performance diagnostic. You may have heard a little bit about this already and you may not have, but you'll get to hear a little bit more about it today. I do want to start with introductions, introducing our team. Um, Deanna Clemens, our director of continuous improvement and academic and behavior supports. I am Samura Davis, special education performance diagnostic manager. And the newest member of our team is Cole Davis, our special education performance uh diagnostic
080uh specialist. All right. So, very briefly, we'll do a quick overview of the SPD and show you a quick video. We'll go through the timeline of kind of the start and where we are now, and then we'll talk about future updates and communication for the SPD. So, a quick overview. Uh so the SPD really helps districts answer the question, how healthy is my special education system? So it really um is a framework uh that is for districts to understand the health of their special education systems and really pinpoint um are areas for improvement. So it's organized around levers, essential actions, and key practices that really define what districts should do in order to serve our students with disabilities more effectively in our schools. So, I'll start here uh with a quick video. This is about
08160 seconds, so it's pretty quick. Uh but we do have other videos available on um our Texas Fed support website for uh the SPD. So, if you want to learn even more about it, we have an introduction video, which I'll show you today, the SPD over video, which is a little bit longer and dives a little bit deeper into the framework itself, and then the SPD self- assessment video, which will kind of walk you through just a general overview of uh what that process will look like. So, with no further ado, I'll go ahead and start the video. The special education performance diagnostic, also known as the SPD, is intended for use by Texas public schools. We use the term district throughout this video to include both school districts and open enrollment charter schools. The
082SPD provides districts with a framework for understanding the overall health of their special education system. It helps identify areas for improvement and supports the creation and implementation of reliable and sustainable systems. The SPD was designed to align with existing TEA resources such as the special education self assessment, special education monitoring desk review rubric, and technical assistance guidance documents. Most importantly, the SPD was developed with continuous feedback and input from districts, including special education directors and other leaders. At the heart of the SPD is the SPD framework, which is organized into seven levers. These levers are further broken down into essential actions, key practices, and success criteria that define what a district should do to ensure that students with disabilities are effectively served in schools. This design mirrors other TEA frameworks, including the effective district framework,
083the effective schools framework, and the student support framework. Each lever focuses on meaningful actions districts can take to improve supports and outcomes for students with disabilities. Lever one, integrated systems, focuses on collaboration and integration of special education within district systems as well as performance management for continuous improvement. Level two, talent, addresses the hiring, support, and retention of skilled educators who serve students with disabilities. Level three, special education identification and evaluation, encompasses essential actions for a multi-tered system of supports, child find, evaluation, and re-evaluation. Level four, individualized education program or IEP development, addresses essential actions for admission review and dismissal or AR committees, quality IEP content and monitoring progress toward individual goals. All right, so I am going to move ahead into the next slide. I know we're a little short on time. Uh, but like
084I said, you can go to the Texas bed support website and you can view all three of the videos there if you search SPD or special education performance diagnostic. So I wanted to uh go through quickly the timeline. So of course uh we have been working uh on the SPD. We started with the framework. So those seven levers that you saw briefly in the video um we are have iterated on that. We completed some field testing, kind of some paper pencil with about 21 of our districts um in uh January of um 2025. Uh where we are right now is we are in our pilot. So we've been working on developing our application behind TEAL. Uh we have about 46 districts that we piloted with. uh they received some training and um in addition to
085that our ESC special education liaison also received some training to participate in our pilot and engaging in the SPD. Uh those districts um also are wrapping up the pilot right now. So they are completing some focus group getting some feedback from them so that we can revise it um and make it better. So we're looking at updating that content based on the feedback that we've received and we're going to continue uh that application development behind teal. Um in addition to that um we are looking at September through December with completing some training for districts. So, uh, districts will, uh, designate, uh, one person from their district as a special education design, most likely special education director or someone else that's designated by the district to participate in training. Um, as well as our ESC special
086education liaison and our strategic integration liaison at the ESC level, we'll receive some training um, on the SPD on how to engage in it. And then in spring of 2027, we uh will have our full launch of the SPD uh where our districts will be able to um log into Teal, see their data, and they'll be able to engage in completing uh the self assessment in the application behind Teal. So, future updates and communication, uh wanted to kind of break that down a little bit more. So those training requirements in December, uh like we said, the districts will designate one person uh to attend that training. It will be a one-day training at the ESC. We'll also have some virtual options as well. Districts will participate in at least one uh scheduled check-in with TEA
087or their special ed uh liaison. Uh which could be like an office hours type uh check-in. Um as well uh there will be a post test and uh people who attend the training participants will receive a certificate for that. In addition uh teal access so uh once districts completed their training they can uh go ahead and request their access to the SPD application starting in September. So please don't request your uh your your uh access at this time because it will get rejected between now and then. But in September is when you can actually log in uh to uh you'll be able to have access at that time. We will have a training environment for training that districts can use as we uh do actual training, but you can go ahead and request your access
088in September. Uh registration for training will begin in the summer of 2026. And then as we talked about for SPD launch and ongoing support. So uh all districts will complete a special the SPD key practice self- assessment um within the application behind teal and then districts will select one lever to self assess. Um there will also be uh resources available to districts as well and TEA office hours and support from our ESC special education liaison. and look for more information coming soon. Uh we will be at TKS this summer as well. Uh so look for more information to come about uh the SPD. I'll turn it back over to you Aya. Thank you Samore. I appreciate it. Um and I appreciate everyone's attendance today. It was a lot of information. So I will get the
089agenda up today and then the recording up as soon as it's been converted. And so I'm going to try to put a rush order on that.