HISD’s special education department is improving — but it’s still lagging on a key metric

For years, Rita Martinez would cry after meetings with the special education staff at Berry Elementary School about her son, Joel, who has dyslexia and autism.

Employees at the campus on Houston ISD’s north side would say they were stretched too thin and could not provide all the services and accommodations laid out in Joel’s education plan, Martinez said. As a result, Joel would sometimes miss out on the speech and occupational therapies he needed.

In addition, several parents reported that they continue to encounter special education issues at their campuses, despite Miles’ changes this year.

LaMonica Hollins, the mother of a second-grader with autism at Frost Elementary School on HISD’s south side, said teachers repeatedly punish her son for minor behavior issues, like putting his head down on his desk. Hollins also said her son, who has difficulty with pronunciation, is supposed to receive speech therapy but only got brief virtual lessons this year.

Hollins plans to transfer her son to another district next year following their experience at Frost Elementary, but she has not yet decided where.

“They are extremely limited with what they can provide him because of the short staff at that location,” Hollins said. Payroll records show two full-time special education teachers at the roughly 500-student school, which is not part of Miles’ NES overhaul this year.

Dasia Sanders, whose fourth-grade son attends Atherton Elementary School, an NES campus on the district’s northeast side, said she believes special education teachers at the campus have given up on her son, considering him “not teachable.”

“When I ask him what he does in school, all he tells me is he’s on the computer all day,” Sanders said. “He’s supposed to know his short vowels and his long vowels, and that’s what I’m teaching him at home. He’s not learning it at school. He barely can read a whole, full sentence.”

Still, Martinez maintains the changes at Berry Elementary have been a lifesaver for her. Her son will attend middle school next year, and Martinez said she plans to send him to another NES campus.

“I’ve seen great progress in the NES setting,” Martinez said. “I could have easily pulled my special needs son out and put him in a non-NES school, but that’s not an option for me.”

Asher Lehrer-Small covers education for the Landing and would love to hear your tips, questions and story ideas about Houston ISD. Reach him at asher@houstonlanding.org .