Young children with disabilities need specialized support, but inclusive access and staffing remain barriers. One state is hoping to change that.
In Texas, a new four-year plan sets three goals: make it easier for families to navigate the early childhood learning system when trying to obtain inclusive support; build a well-supported and trained early childhood workforce; and improve the transition process when a child is moving from early intervention at preschool into services provided by a public school district.
The initiative was developed through a collaborative effort by the Lone Star State’s education department and other state agencies, as well as the Texas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas and includes feedback from a survey of families, educators, and childcare providers on the state of special education childcare in Texas.
Students with disabilities face access barriers to high-quality early education because of a shortage of trained educators, said Max Rombado, director of early learning policy at Texan Care for Children, a nonprofit children’s policy organization.
“Childcare providers either are understaffed or not well equipped, or prioritizing other students to enroll because of the challenges with serving children with more complex learning needs,” he said. “The struggle doesn’t happen when they’re in the [classroom], as much as it’s trying to find a space available for them.”
The problem of staffing shortages of educators who specialize in early childhood special education is one being felt across the country. Families face complex evaluation processes to get the care their children need, said Tyreca Elliot, manager of individualized education services with KinderCare, a national private provider of early childhood education.
“This time of a child’s life is so critical when they’re learning relationships, communication, and participation in a classroom,” said Elliot. “When those children’s needs are identified and supported early, then we have the opportunity to build the skills and support that child eventually carries into elementary and beyond.”
Access and support are challenges for families
Young children with delays or disabilities need to receive the right support as early as possible, or it becomes a barrier to inclusive care, said Elliot. But most families struggle to obtain screenings and evaluations of their child to see how they are developmentally progressing and if any support is needed, both Elliot and Rombado told Education Week.
In Texas, some families of children with disabilities reported difficulty understanding what programs exist, what they can request, and what happens during the transition into a public school system.
Families have to “get to the application page and fill it out for their child, and go through a variety of different public programs,” said Rombado. “Access to the internet, to language translations, and time are major challenges.”
Additionally, transitions from preschool to a public school system can be especially challenging for families of young children with disabilities, Elliot and Rombado said. Parents often feel tasked with making sure intervention services continue seamlessly.
“Oftentimes, kids lose their [early intervention] services and have to spend months before they can get services again,” said Rombado. “Even then, those services can differ in quality, in quantity, in frequency, and so families go through that transition process, often feeling like they have little to no information.”
An additional hurdle has been finding the right staff who are both interested and qualified to work in early childhood special education. Often, the low pay is a deterrent. If people are interested, there are limited staff training and coaching opportunities in inclusive practices, the Texas plan said.
What Texas’ early childhood special education plan calls for
Texas’ plan defines inclusive care as “all children with disabilities and developmental delays learn, play, and meaningfully participate alongside their peers without disabilities, with the individualized supports they need to engage with and make progress in the same programs and environments.”
And it calls for the three state agencies—education, health and human services, and workforce commission—to use aligned language when promoting inclusive care.
That focus on inclusion is encouraging, Elliot said: “It isn’t just simply placing children in the same classroom as their peers, but also ensuring that active participation and the standards we should be striving for, really in every state.”
The plan also calls for the Texas Education Agency to create and present at least two webinars for families about special education early childhood supports, inclusion for children with disabilities, and the transition process.
Additionally, the Texas Education Agency will launch three free virtual trainings for educators focused on best practices in early intervention for infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, and deafblind, according to the plan.
Still, while the plan aims to increase access to inclusive care, it mostly serves to improve awareness of the issues and isn’t attached to new funding, Rombado said. Any related legislation or funding would have to be taken up by the state legislature.
“The things the agency has committed to do in this report are things they’re able to do with the constraints they currently have—they’re doing the best they can with the resources they have,” said Rombado. “The legislature in Texas will have to take steps through law to appropriate more funding, provide more support for training and hiring strategies.”
