Austin ISD spending on key special education contracting jobs triples in just two years

As Austin school officials slogged through a crippling backlog of overdue special education evaluations, the district almost tripled its spending on contract services for special education professionals — from $3.5 million to $10.1 million — in just two years, according to records obtained by the American-Statesman.

The rapid rise in contract spending coincided with a state order that the district evaluate hundreds of children languishing on waitlists for months to get tested for potential services for special learning or behavioral needs.

While the Austin district hopes to cut its use of special education contracting services by about $1 million next year as part of budget deficit reductions, schools statewide rely heavily on third-party specialists, who can take their high-demand skills to firms that can pay more and provide flexible hours — and charge districts for those services.

Between 2021 and 2023, the Austin school district increased spending on contract services from $3.5 million to $10.1 million in four key categories of special education specialists: speech language pathologist, licensed specialists in school psychology, licensed occupational therapists and dyslexia coaches, according to district records.

Over the same three years, district spending on its own staff in those four categories only increased $200,000, from $7.9 million to $8.1 million, records show.

The Austin district spends significantly more on special education and dyslexia services as a whole. In the 2023-24 school year, the district spent at least $178.6 million, almost twice what the state allocated for them, according to budget records.

From 2021 to 2022, the district dramatically increased spending for third-party licensed specialists in school psychology — who complete evaluations — from $509,785 to $5.1 million, a 900% increase.

In a statement, district officials said the increased spending on contracted services comes from the need to do more evaluations and provide services for those children who are evaluated.

State oversight

The Austin district is under a watch, called a monitor, by the Texas Education Agency over its chronic student evaluation backlog for special education services.

Once a child’s parent requests an evaluation for special education services, schools must follow a strict federal timeline to determine if the child needs those services. The Austin district’s backlog of overdue evaluations had languished for years when it signed an improvement order with TEA in September.

The district has since made significant progress, lowering the number of overdue evaluations from 1,780 in January 2023 to 144 in May this year, according to district data.

“Contracted service providers have supported our ability to cover evaluation and service/scheduling needs that currently cannot be fulfilled otherwise, and they have also supported our ability to fulfill additional evaluation needs over breaks, holidays and summers,” district officials said in a statement.

Statewide contract use

Texas school districts commonly use contractors for special education services.

As enrollment in special education services increased statewide from about 450,000 students in 2015 to more than 600,000 in 2022, Texas school districts’ total spending on contracting services increased from less than $100 million to about $152 million, according to data from the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education.

Third-party companies can usually give educators better pay and more flexible working conditions than school districts, which can be attractive, said Andrea Chevalier, director of governmental relations for the council.

If districts can’t fill their special education needs with on-staff personnel, they must go to contractors because those services to students are required by law, she said.

“School districts are a captive market,” Chevalier said. “They have to buy these things.”

Districts statewide are plagued with a shortage of qualified staff in specialized areas. While experts recommend a ratio of about 500 students per licensed school psychologist, in Texas, there's one school psychologist per about 2,617 students, according to the Texas Association of School Psychologists.

Despite offering higher pay, the Austin district has struggled to attract and retain limited qualified special educators.

Last year, the Austin board approved a 7% raise for staff members and stipends of up to $7,000 for those with special education or bilingual certifications.

Besides the high expense, contractors can create certain issues for district, Chevalier said, adding that the contracted services might not be consistent from student to student or school to school.

“When you have someone you're contracting with, you can't hold them to the same training requirements,” Chevalier said. “You can't hold them to the same work hours.”

Students and parents also might not connect with contractors as well as they would with someone who is on campus full time, she said.

Cutting down

The Austin district paid for the higher special education contracting costs by using savings from personnel vacancies across the district, officials said.

As part of an effort to cut $29 million from the district’s budget next year, Austin school board trustees voted Thursday to reduce contracted services by $1 million. Local school officials expect a $41 million deficit on the district's $1.2 billion budget in the 2024-25 school year.

During a June 6 school board meeting, Superintendent Matias Segura told board members that he’s focused on reducing reliance on contractors.

“We're at a point now where we have to kind of decommit or de-obligate, but at the same time you have to ensure that you have the resource when you need the resource,” Segura said. “It really has to be a ratcheting down over time to where you get to a sustainable level.”

The district has aggressively hired staff to meet the needs of special education students evaluated through clearing its backlog, but it still has vacancies, Segura said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin ISD spending on some special education contract jobs triples