Good morning, Houston. It's Tuesday. ☀️ Temperature check: High of 94; low of 73. Justin's insight: Don't expect relief from the above-average temperatures with the arrival of fall later this week. Read more here. 📅 Today's calendar: Harris County Commissioners Court will meet today at 10 a.m. Find the agenda here. |
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Today we're talking about HISD's special education program... |
If you read one thing: Some parents of HISD students say they believe Superintendent Mike Miles has so far neglected to prioritize the monumental task of fixing the district's special education program or articulate in public a clear plan for improvement. What is Miles doing about the special education program? While Miles has not yet publicly shared a Special Education Action Plan, a draft of his Destination 2035 concept paper — labeled confidential and obtained by the Chronicle through an open records request — outlines several goals for special education. These include standardizing service implementation throughout the district, addressing the backlog of services, taking away from principals the ability to deny placement of children with disabilities on their campuses, adding specialists to help special education teachers with paperwork and compliance, providing professional development and insisting on a high-quality instructional model for all students. Miles said he also has raised base salaries for special education teachers at NES schools. Why are parents upset? Few of the above details have been shared with the public, and some parents and advocates said they remain frustrated by a lack of transparency. Other parents are concerned about a new instructional model introduced in classrooms across the district that encourages teachers to use timers to guide the pacing of their lessons, and one policy that discourages teachers from letting poor readers read aloud in class. And one parent said her daughter no longer had access to a speech therapist this year, which is required twice a week in her special education plan.
Read Anna Bauman's full story here.
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Susan Barber / Houston Chronicle |
Long-broken lights on Montrose bridge could get a $4 million overhaul. The LED lights, first installed by the Montrose Management District ahead of the 2017 Super Bowl, have long been unreliable. They even briefly went out in January 2018 after the district failed to pay its electricity bill. Will Houston's roadway landscaping survive this summer's drought? TxDOT's Houston District arborist is not too concerned yet, noting that the drought of 2011 was far more devastating than this year, and many of those plants came back. A thirteenth Harris County Jail death reported this year. A 66-year-old inmate died Saturday afternoon after suffering a medical emergency at the Harris County Jail, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
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John Branch / Houston Chronicle |
🗣️ Editorial Board: Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature, who have held increased school funding hostage to passing vouchers, should heed Spring Branch ISD's "Come and Take It" challenge, writes the Editorial Board. 🗪 Other points of view: Sign up for the "SaysHou" newsletter to get more editorials, columns and letters curated by the Chronicle's opinion team here. |
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Ken Ellis / Houston Chronicle |
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Thanks for all the good wishes and suggestions for my bicycle race in Fort Davis this weekend. The entire race got rained out by a massive storm, but I still got to ride about 20 miles in rain, hail and a bit of a lightning storm before I had to take shelter and end the ride. I will definitely be going back again next year, and if you like biking at all, I highly suggest you go as well. Cat DeLaura cat.delaura@houstonchronicle.com |
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