Two local families have filed or are in the process of filing formal discrimination complaints against Denton ISD alleging the school system didn’t provide their children with special education services during the 2023-24 school year.
Delia Sandoval says her daughter, Eva, fell behind last school year due to the lack of a certified special education teacher. Her daughter, who has developmental delays, is in her third year of early childhood education with the district, and an advocate filed a complaint through the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education last June.
Sandoval said an Individualized Education Plan, which can be offered to special education and general education students, stipulated that her daughter would receive 95 minutes of emergency literacy instruction, 60 minutes of numeracy, 30 minutes of special personal care, 15 minutes of physical education and 105 minutes of social-emotional support daily.
“Our goal for Eva is for her to be in school with other students by the time she gets to high school,” Sandoval said. “But to do that, she has to be prepared. Right now, she’s not prepared. Right now, she’s behind.”
Tanya East, who says her 4-year-old son has autism and is nonverbal, said she asked the district in the spring of 2023 to provide her son with an augmentative and alternative communication device, which could help him learn to communicate. The district didn’t provide the device, East said, but the family was able to get one.
“The district, even though it’s a bring-your-own device district, only used it 10% of the first nine weeks,” East said. “This is his voice. This is being modeled to him, and they’re rarely using it.”
East said she contacted an advocate to file a disability discrimination complaint last December and refiled last April. She is waiting for a letter she expects will open an investigation.
The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights lists two pending investigations — one from June 4 and another from June 9 — filed this year against the district, both of which are listed under pending investigations into Free Appropriate Publication Education violations. FAPE is guaranteed to children ages 3 to 21 through the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“Denton ISD does not discriminate,” Denton ISD officials said in a statement. “We will continue to partner with parents to meet the needs of all students. Of the 33,348 students we serve, we are aware of two complaints made to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. One is regarding a general education student surrounding football, and that individual is no longer enrolled in Denton ISD.”
Both Sandoval and East said their children suffered from a lack of certified special education teachers in the district.
The Texas Education Agency listed special education as one of eight teacher shortage areas in the state and one of four “critical shortage” teaching areas in the state in 2023-24. TEA showed that Texas public schools lacked special education teachers in all grade levels. A critical shortage allows candidates for teaching credentials to apply for federally funded TEACH grants or public service loan forgiveness to get certified to teach those specialties.
“We didn’t have staff, or the classroom was not staffed for, 164 days of the 180 days of the school year,” East said. “That is 72,160 minutes of the school [year] that was not properly staffed with the required certified teacher or [paraprofessionals].”
Julie Zwahr, Denton ISD’s chief of communications, said district officials are always working to recruit and retain certified teachers to serve their 43 campuses.
“Like all schools across the country who are continuously working to hire teachers, especially in high need areas, some vacancies are being filled by teachers who have alternative or provisional certifications. In the current climate, there is a growing need for teachers,” she said in an email. “The two parents you referenced, have [students] who are currently enrolled in Denton ISD that are being served by a teacher who has earned an EC-12 Special Education Certification.”
East said she believes the lack of staff contributed to a different problem. Her son wears training pants, and East said her son has occasionally lacked adequate changes and, in one instance, spent seven hours in soiled training pants.
Both Sandoval and East are concerned about retaliation as a result of their complaints. Sandoval said she feels her relationship with the district has worsened since she made a formal complaint.
“They’re pushing us back or cutting us off and not really willing to hear our voices and compromise in any way,” Sandoval said. “And I think the hardest part is not taking accountability even after they acknowledge not delivering my child over 7,000 minutes of education. It’s been really disheartening to sit there and just kind of be expected to take this as a bystander.”
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