Tex. Education Code § 29.001 — TX Code / Code ed / Chapter 29 / Section 29.001
§ 29.001. IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION LAW.
Status: in_force

(a) As the state education agency responsible for carrying out the purposes of Part B, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1411 et seq.), the agency shall develop, and revise as necessary, a comprehensive system to ensure statewide and local compliance with federal and state law related to special education.

(b) The comprehensive system must include the provision of services primarily through school districts and shared services arrangements, supplemented by regional education service centers.

(c) The comprehensive system must focus on maximizing student outcomes and include:

(1) rulemaking, technical assistance, guidance documents, monitoring protocols, data elements necessary for statewide reporting, and other resources as necessary to implement and ensure compliance with federal and state law related to special education;

(2) the facilitation of interagency coordination when other state agencies are involved in the delivery of instructional or related services to students with disabilities;

(3) the pursuit of strategies to meet statewide special education and related services personnel needs;

(4) ensuring that regional education service centers throughout the state maintain a regional support function, which may include procedures for service centers to assist school districts in identifying existing public or private educational or related services in each region, cooperatively developing programs for students with disabilities, providing to or obtaining for school districts special equipment, delivering services, and facilitating the placement of students with disabilities who cannot be appropriately served in their resident districts;

(5) effectively monitoring and periodically conducting site visits of all school districts to ensure that rules adopted under this subchapter are applied in a consistent and uniform manner, to ensure that districts are complying with those rules, and to ensure that annual statistical reports filed by the districts and not otherwise available through the Public Education Information Management System under Sections 48.008 and 48.009 are accurate and complete; and

(6) the provision of training and technical assistance to ensure that:

(A) appropriately trained personnel are involved in the diagnostic and evaluative procedures operating in all districts and that those personnel routinely serve on district multidisciplinary evaluation teams and admissions, review, and dismissal committees;

(B) an individualized education program for each student with a disability is properly developed, implemented, and maintained in the least restrictive environment that is appropriate to meet the student's educational needs;

(C) appropriately trained personnel are available to students with disabilities who have significant behavioral support needs, including by making behavioral support training available to each paraprofessional or teacher placed in a classroom or other setting that is intended to provide specialized behavioral supports to a student with a disability, as needed or at regular intervals as provided in the student's individualized education program;

(D) when appropriate, each student with a disability is provided an opportunity to participate in career and technology and physical education classes;

(E) each student with a disability is provided necessary related services;

(F) school districts have an opportunity to request technical assistance from the agency or a regional education service center in establishing classroom environments conducive to learning for students with disabilities, including environments for students whose data indicate behavior that significantly impedes the student's own learning and the learning of other students;

(G) an individual assigned to act as a surrogate parent for a child with a disability, as provided by 20 U.S.C. Section 1415(b), is required to:

(i) complete a training program that complies with minimum standards established by agency rule;

(ii) visit the child and the child's school;

(iii) consult with persons involved in the child's education, including teachers, caseworkers, court-appointed volunteers, guardians ad litem, attorneys ad litem, foster parents, and caretakers;

(iv) review the child's educational records;

(v) attend meetings of the child's admission, review, and dismissal committee;

(vi) exercise independent judgment in pursuing the child's interests; and

(vii) exercise the child's due process rights under applicable state and federal law; and

(H) each district develops a process to be used by a teacher who instructs a student with a disability in a general education classroom setting:

(i) to request a review of the student's individualized education program;

(ii) to provide input in the development of the student's individualized education program;

(iii) that provides for a timely district response to the teacher's request; and

(iv) that provides for notification to the student's parent or legal guardian of that response.