What We Do

The mission of the Office of Special Education Services is to extend and improve learning opportunities for students with disabilities in accordance with state, federal, and local policies and procedures in ways that elicit the cooperation of staff and parents, enabling the students to utilize instruction and related services to participate to the fullest extent possible in all phases of life.

The Houston Independent School District offers a variety of special services at all of its campuses and through community agencies and hospitals within its boundaries. The Office of Special Education Services serves approximately 21,000 students who qualify for services with one or more of the following disabilities: mental retardation, auditory impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), emotional disturbance, noncategorical early-childhood disability, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, specific learning disabilities, deaf blindness, and multiple impairments.

The Admission, Review, and Dismissal/Individual Education Program (ARD/IEP) Committee determines the instructional arrangement to which each student receives special education instruction and related services.

Parents play an important role as partners in their children’s education. HISD encourages parent and community members to participate in the Special Education planning process. Parent meetings are held in the central office and in each of the district offices throughout the year. These meetings facilitate participation by community members, including individuals with disabilities and their families, who are concerned with educational programming for students with disabilities.

SPECIAL EDUCATION MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Special Education Department is to support the schools in extending and improving learning opportunities for children/adult students with disabilities in accordance with state, federal and local policies and procedures so that children/adult students are able to participate in instruction and related services to the fullest extent. This will be accomplished by working with regional offices and schools to develop and implement programs and activities that will meet the needs of children/adult students with disabilities and by collaborating with school and district staff and parents to assure that children/adult students with disabilities are fully included in the school’s instructional and extracurricular programs.