Houston Public Media

A small group of parents gathered Wednesday night looking for advice on how to combat the controversial changes to special education Houston ISD is implementing for the upcoming school year. Texas’ largest school district is consolidating special education services to select campuses beginning in 2026-27, which prompted an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The move would require some students to be transferred from their neighborhood school to another school in the district that would be tapped as a hub to provide a variety of special education services. In early May, the district sent letters home with parents informing them of the changes and if their child’s program was affected. Special education advocate Karen Mayer Cunningham held Wednesday’s meeting in the parking lot of Bellaire High School, one of the impacted campuses that’s moving some special education programs to Sharpstown High School. She advised parents to immediately file formal complaints with the Texas Education Agency, to ignore those letters from the district and show up at the campus listed in their child’s Individualized Education Plan on Aug. 10, the first day of the upcoming school year.