HOUSTON — Classes in HISD, the state’s largest district, start in two weeks.
With the new school year come more questions about the Texas Education Agency takeover and terminated jobs.
On Monday, we asked the district about certain jobs that were recently been eliminated, including contract speech therapists and school psychologists. We were told HISD prefers to have dedicated full-time employees to serve its students.
So after its review in mid-June by the office of special education services, the district decided to terminate 21 independent contractors, saying “The district will continue to contract with other independent service providers for speech language pathology and licensed psychologists to ensure we can meet the needs of students. If additional services are required to support students with disabilities, the district will continue to utilize contracted independent service providers to ensure that the needs of these students are met.”
The district made it clear that they have not released special education teachers – those who are employees of the district -- and they added that HISD is currently recruiting for special ed positions.
With a new school year upon us, we want to hear from you. Let us know your questions and concerns in our back-to-school survey.