• The term "special education" means specially-designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education; and

• A comprehensive needs assessment addressing LEA performance on the academic excellence indicators, and other appropriate measures of performance, that are disaggregated by all groups served by the LEA, including categories of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sex, and populations served by special programs, including children in special education programs;
  

• Measurable district performance objectives for all appropriate academic excellence indicators for all populations, including children in special education programs, and other measures of performance that may be identified through the comprehensive needs assessment; and
  

• Strategies for improvement of student performance that include:    

• Instructional methods for addressing the needs of student groups not achieving their full potential;
  

• Methods for addressing the needs of children for special programs, such as suicide prevention, conflict resolution, violence prevention, or dyslexia treatment programs;

• Dropout reduction;

• Integration of technology in instructional and administrative programs;
  

• Discipline management;

• Staff development for professional staff of the LEA;           

• Career education to assist children in developing the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary for a broad range of career opportunities;  and
  

• Accelerated education.

• Assess the academic achievement for each child in the school using the AEIS;
  

• Set the campus performance objectives based on the AEIS, including objectives for special needs populations, including children in special education programs;
  

• Identify how the campus goals will be met for each child;          

• Determine the resources needed to implement the plan;             

• Identify staff needed to implement the plan;

• Set timelines for reaching the goals; 

• Measure progress toward the performance objectives periodically to ensure that the plan is resulting in academic improvement;
  

• Include goals and methods for violence prevention and intervention on campus;  and
  

• Provide for a program to encourage parental involvement at the campus.

The education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by providing incentives for whole-school approaches, scientifically-based early reading programs, positive behavioral interventions and supports, and early intervening services to reduce the need to label children as disabled in order to address the learning and behavioral needs of such children.

• Professional development (which may be provided by entities other than LEAs) for teachers and other school staff to enable such personnel to deliver scientifically-based academic instruction and behavioral interventions, including scientifically-based literacy instruction, and, where appropriate, instruction on the use of adaptive and instructional software; and

• Providing educational and behavioral evaluations, services, and supports, including scientifically-based literacy instruction.

• Tutorial;

• Remedial services; and

• Compensatory services.

• Provide for a conference between parents and teachers;

• Require the LEA, at least once every 12 weeks, to give written notice to a parent of a child's performance in each class or subject; and

• Which must provide for the signature of a child's parent; and

• Which must be return to the LEA;

• Require the LEA, at least once every three weeks, or during the fourth week of each nine-week grading period, to give written notice to a parent or legal guardian of a child's performance in a subject included in the foundation curriculum if the child's performance in the subject is consistently unsatisfactory, as determined by the LEA.

Title I, Part A Schoolwide Program, if applicable.

Title IV, Part A Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities programs, if applicable.

Each LEA that is required to offer bilingual education and special language programs must offer the following for children of limited English proficiency:

• Bilingual education in kindergarten through the elementary grades;

• Bilingual education, instruction in English as a second language, or other transitional language instruction approved by the TEA in post-elementary grades through grade 8; and

• Instruction in English as a second language in grades 9 through 12.

READING AND MATH DIAGNOSIS

• Administering, at the kindergarten, first and second grade levels, a reading instrument on the list adopted by the Commissioner or by the district-level committee;

• Administering the reading instrument in accordance with the Commissioner's recommendations;

• Reporting, in writing, to a child's parent or guardian the child's results on the reading instrument;

• Implementing an accelerated reading instruction program that provides reading instruction that addresses reading deficiencies to those children who have been determined to be at risk for dyslexia or other reading disorders; and

• Determining the form, content, and timing of the accelerated reading program.

A LEA that provides tutorial services must require a child whose grade in a subject for a grade reporting period is lower than the equivalent of 70 on a scale of 100 to attend tutorials.

INTENSIVE PROGRAM OF INSTRUCTION

A LEA must offer an intensive program of instruction to a child who does not perform satisfactorily on a statewide assessment instrument.

A LEA must design the intensive program of instruction to:

• Enable a child to:

• To the extent practicable, perform at the child's grade level at the conclusion of the next regular school term; or

• Attain a standard of annual growth specified by the LEA and reported by the LEA to the agency; and

• If applicable, carry out the purposes of satisfactory performance on assessment instruments.

A LEA must use funds appropriated by the legislature for an intensive program of instruction to plan and implement intensive instruction and other activities aimed at helping a child satisfy state and local high school graduation requirements.

• Do not perform satisfactorily on a statewide assessment instrument; or

• Are not likely to receive a high school diploma before the fifth school year following the child's enrollment in grade nine, as determined by the LEA.

• Including reading instruction for a child who fails to perform satisfactorily on a reading assessment instrument; and

• An accelerated instruction group administered by a LEA may not have a ratio of more than 10 children for each teacher.

• The grade placement committee must be composed of the principal or the principal's designee, the child's parent or guardian, and the teacher of the subject of an assessment instrument on which the child failed to perform satisfactorily; and

• The LEA must notify the parent or guardian of the time and place for convening the grade placement committee and the purpose of the committee. 

After a child fails to perform satisfactorily on a statewide assessment instrument a third time, the LEA must provide:

• Accelerated instruction during the next school year as prescribed by an educational plan developed for the child by the child's grade placement committee;

• Regardless of whether the child has been promoted or retained;

• An educational plan designed to enable the child to perform at the appropriate grade level by the conclusion of the school year; and

• Monitoring of the child during the school year to ensure that the child is progressing in accordance with the plan.

• Each LEA must evaluate and document the effectiveness of the accelerated instruction in reducing any disparity in performance on statewide assessment instruments, or disparity in the rates of high school completion between children at risk of dropping out of school and all other LEA children;
  

• "Student at risk of dropping out of school" includes each child who is under 21 years of age and who:

• Was not advanced from one grade level to the next for one or more school years;
  

• If the child is in grade 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12, did not maintain an average equivalent to 70 on a scale of 100 in two or more subjects in the foundation curriculum during a semester in the preceding or current school year or is not maintaining such an average in two or more subjects in the foundation curriculum in the current semester;
  

• Did not perform satisfactorily on a statewide assessment instrument, and who has not in the previous or current school year subsequently performed on that instrument or another appropriate instrument at a level equal to at least 110 percent of the level of satisfactory performance on that instrument;

• If the child is in prekindergarten, kindergarten, or grade 1, 2, or 3, did not perform satisfactorily on a readiness test or assessment instrument administered during the current school year;
  

• Is pregnant or is a parent;

• Has been placed in a disciplinary alternative education program during the preceding or current school year;
  

• Has been expelled during the preceding or current school year;
  

• Is currently on parole, probation, deferred prosecution, or other conditional release;

• Was previously reported through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) to have dropped out of school;
  

• Is a child of limited English proficiency;

• Is in the custody or care of the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services or has, during the current school year, been referred to the department by a school official, officer of the juvenile court, or law enforcement official;

• Is homeless; and

• Resided in the preceding school year or resides in the current school year in a residential placement facility in the LEA, including a detention facility, substance abuse treatment facility, emergency shelter, psychiatric hospital, halfway house, or foster group home.

• Children who are not performing at grade level in mathematics to assist those children in performing at grade level;
  

• Children who are not performing successfully in a mathematics course to assist those children in successfully completing the course;  or
  

• Children other than those described above, as determined by the LEA.
  

• Determining child eligibility for participating in the program that:
  

• Prescribes the grade level or course a child must be enrolled in to be eligible;  and
  

• Provides for considering teacher recommendations in determining eligibility;
  

• Ensuring that parents of or persons standing in parental relation to eligible children are provided notice of the program;
  

• Ensuring that eligible children are encouraged to attend the program; 

• Ensuring that the program is offered at one or more locations in the LEA that are easily accessible to eligible children;  and
  

• Measuring child progress on completion of the program.         

NON-DISCIPLINARY ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

• Provide not less than four hours of instructional time per day;

• Employ as faculty and administrators persons with baccalaureate or advanced degrees;

• Provide at least one instructor for each 28 children; and

• Perform satisfactorily according to performance indicators and accountability standards adopted for alternative education programs by the commissioner.

• Does not perform satisfactorily on a statewide assessment instrument; or

• Is not likely to receive a high school diploma before the fifth school year following the child's enrollment in grade level nine, as determined by the LEA;

• Identify educational goals for the child;                             
  

• Include diagnostic information, appropriate monitoring and intervention, and other evaluation strategies;
  

• Include an intensive instruction program described above;
  

• Address participation of the child's parent or guardian, including consideration of the parent's or guardian's educational expectations for the child;  and
  

• Provide innovative methods to promote the child's advancement, including flexible scheduling, alternative learning environments, on-line instruction, and other interventions that are proven to accelerate the learning process and have been scientifically validated to improve learning and cognitive ability.
  

BASIC SKILLS PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

A LEA may apply to the commissioner for funding of special programs for children in grade 9 who are at risk of not earning sufficient credit or who have not earned sufficient credit to advance to grade 10 and who failed to meet minimum skills levels established by the commissioner:

• A LEA may, with the consent of a child's parent or guardian, assign a child to a basic skills program;

• A basic skills program may not exceed 210 instructional days.

• Emphasize basic skills in areas of the required curriculum;

• Offer children the opportunity to increase credits required for high school graduation under state or federal policy;

• Include criteria that permit measurement of child progress; and

• Annually evaluate the progress of children in the program.

A LEA may provide an integrated program of educational and support services for children who are pregnant or who are parents.

• Individual counseling, peer counseling, and self-help programs;

• Career counseling and job readiness training;

• Day care for the students' children on the campus or at a day care facility in close proximity to the campus;

• Transportation for children of students to and from the campus or day care facility;

• Transportation for children, as appropriate, to and from the campus or day care facility;

• Instruction related to knowledge and skills in child development, parenting, and home and family living; and

• Assistance to children in the program in obtaining available services from government agencies or community service organizations, including prenatal and postnatal health and nutrition programs.

DYSLEXIA SERVICES

REFERRAL FOR POSSIBLE SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES

Either a parent of a child, or a SEA, other State agency, or LEA may initiate a request for an initial evaluation to determine if the child is a child with a disability.

• The explanation must state that a parent is entitled at any time to request an evaluation of the parent's child for special education services.

• Each school year, each LEA must provide the written explanation to a parent of each child in the LEA by including the explanation in the student handbook or by another means.

• Lack of appropriate instruction in reading, including in the essential components of reading instruction as defined in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA);

• Lack of instruction in math; or

• Limited English proficiency.

• The child find process must be designed to ensure the equitable participation of parentally placed private school children with disabilities and an accurate count of such children;

• The LEA, or where applicable, the state educational agency (SEA), must undertake activities similar to those activities undertaken for the agency's public school children;

• The cost of carrying out child find, including individual evaluations, may not be considered in determining whether a LEA has met its proportionate share obligations;

• The child find process must be completed in a time period comparable to that for other children attending public schools in the LEA.