Ashley Haddad noticed her sixth grade student rocking in his chair — a sign that he was losing focus.
“Touch your head,” Haddad touched her head. The student followed.
“Touch your eyes,” the process repeated.
“Touch your nose.” By the last command, Haddad had regained her student’s attention.
That’s just one of many techniques that Haddad, an academic and behavior learning environment teacher at Wood Elementary, has picked up in her 17 years of special education instruction.
Haddad is one of many Arlington ISD instructors navigating the needs of the district’s growing number of special education students. While overall enrollment continues to decrease, the number of students in special education has increased in the past three academic years, according to data from the district obtained by the Arlington Report.
The district has 6,424 special education students, about 12% of all students, as of October 2023 — a 400-student increase from the previous year. Dyslexia and dysgraphia also have recently been brought in under the umbrella of special education.
The share was about 10% when Cindy Brown applied to become special education director in October 2022.
“That’s a pretty significant jump, and it’s continuing that way,” Brown said.
The growth matches nationwide trends. More than 7.5 million students, or 15.2% of all public school students nationwide, needed special education services in the 2022-23 school year, according to the latest National Center for Education Statistics data. In 2011-12, that share was about 13% of all students.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the nation’s special education law, every special education student has to be served by an individualized education program, also known as an IEP.
There can be dozens of reasons a student could need an IEP, including physical or mental health conditions, learning disabilities and developmental delays.
All of Arlington ISD’s students with disabilities are considered general education students first.
Brown has three priorities going into the upcoming school year: Have enough staff and teachers, maintain high academic standards and develop the best IEP for students.
“It really is a moral imperative to make sure that nobody gets left behind, and nobody’s more vulnerable than our kids are in special education,” she said.
Supporting staff and teachers
Brown knows her district can’t support its special education students without providing assistance to the staff and teachers that work with them.
She has been with the district since 1990, serving as a classroom teacher and working with special education students.
Every month, her team meets with lead teachers on individual campuses. They discuss the latest legislative changes affecting special education and work on how the department can address issues that teachers are facing, she said.
Every week, the department also meets with new teachers or bridge substitutes — those working in classrooms with a degree but not a teaching certificate.
The district has 489 teaching positions in special education as of April, according to Brown.
Trustee David Wilbanks said Arlington ISD’s biggest challenge in serving special education students is to find high-quality educators and support staff.
There are about 19 districts within a 30-minute drive from Arlington ISD, which means the district has a lot of competitors to attract talented educators, Wilbanks said.
Nationwide, special education teachers are frequently cited as “somewhat” or “very difficult” positions to fill. About 77% of public schools admitted to having difficulties filling them for the 2023-24 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics in October.
Brown meets with the human resources department weekly, she said. The conversation for hiring doesn’t always surround salaries. They could be about developing different strategies, such as paying for special education teaching certificates or providing mentors, to attract more talent.
About 25% of students at Wood Elementary are in the special education program, principal David Dillard said. Next year, the school will have another teacher that supports students with dyslexia to support the growing needs of students.
Teachers at Wood Elementary share responsibility for the students, which is important when working with the special education population, said Dillard, who also previously taught in special education.
“If you have teachers that get easily frustrated with students who have learning difficulties or differences, then they don’t always consider them their students,” he said. “They consider them Mrs. Haddad’s students, and we want everybody to think of them as our students.”
Traditionally, those disrupting the peacefulness of classrooms may get punished by teachers.
Instead, Haddad brought out another trick. She got students to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to cheer him up. That grounded him.
But she couldn’t do it alone. Haddad also had two paraprofessionals with her in case she couldn’t connect with students on any particular day.
“I’ll go, ‘Oh, my toolbox is empty. What do you think?’ And they will interject,” she said.
Students’ performances
Arlington ISD received a two on the state’s results-driven accountability measure this year.
The measure rates districts statewide, from one, the best, to four, the lowest performance district. The score takes into account 18 different indicators given on a scale of zero being the best performing and three being the lowest performing.
It’s a force distribution system — if every district scores in the 90s, the one with the lowest score will still receive a four.
That makes it hard for districts to set goals, Chief Academic Officer Steven Wurtz told trustees at the Feb. 8 board meeting.
“Our goal is always to be zero or one or two,” Wurtz said. “At the same time, I’m also rooting for my peers around the state that their kids are progressing just as fast as ours, which means someone’s always going to come out as a four or as a two.”
Arlington ISD is in the 80th percentile statewide.
State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test scores, which trustee Wilbanks refers to as a “one-size-fits-all that doesn’t fit any population well,” are one of the most detrimental accountability indicators, he said. He’s happy with the district’s direction and Brown’s efforts and gives props to the current special education teachers at Arlington ISD.
“But since it’s a force distribution, you still want to be a zero because that means versus everyone else in the state, you’re in that group that’s doing better than everybody else,” he said.
Supporting students
The district scores lower in the measure because of the scores for reading, science and social studies on the STAAR tests. Most special education students take the state tests, Brown said.
Science and social studies, however, still require reading comprehension.
“Is it a decoding issue? Is it a comprehension issue? So that’s what we’re digging into as a team right now, and then that’ll be the focus for us next year,” she said.
In the next two years, special education will be ranked through the A-F system in the same way as general education, Brown said.
The district has developed a comprehensive literacy plan, and Brown’s department is working on how that will play out in special education classrooms, she said. Teachers also use face-to-face instruction to ask students to read aloud and monitor comprehension skills.
Back in the classroom, Haddad asked her student to read words out loud. Then, she worked on math problems with another student.
Over the past 17 years, Haddad has learned to be patient and that every student has a need — she just has to find it.
Sometimes, she uses techniques that even she can’t explain the success of. She just knows which ones might help a particular student. When things get hard, she tells herself to try a new method the next day.
“I don’t know. I love what I do,” she said, laughing.
Dang Le is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org or @DangHLe. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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