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What Parents Need To Know

What difference does the Texas Regional Education Service Centers make to you, the parent? 

A big difference!  Instead of wading through the old bureaucratic organization that was TEA, you now have a smaller and more specialized starting place for your questions.  ESC's also provide state leadership for special education related projects. Each ESC is resposible for developing a plan and implementing and evaluating statewide activities related to the project.  Look at the Statewide Leadership projects below.  Each project is given a brief explanation and hyperlinked to the ESC responsible for the project.  Many of these projects also offer online resources and training that parents can take advantage of.

• Access to General Education Curriculum (Region 20 ESC)| 20 ESC Network IDEA 2004 (Individuals with Disabilities Act) and NCLB (No Child Left Behind) both call for students with disabilities (including those with cognitive disabilities) to have greater access than ever before to the general education curriculum.  Basically that means that they must have the opportunity to study the same content and materials - and meet similar standards of success - as their age-appropriate peers, with the help of necessary supports and adaptations, of course.   The Access to General Curriculum (AGC) Network (under the leadership of Region 20) develops a framework for statewide collaboration. Their priorities focus on providing professional development and technical assistance to ensure that all students with disabilities will gain access to and show progress in the general curriculum through curricular/instructional adaptations in the least restrictive environment. They have created a number of important documents that parents should access – LRE Q&A and the Standards Based IEP Q&A. They also have developed free online training regarding Standards Based IEP Development.

• Assistive Technology(Region 4 ESC) 20 ESC Network  The goals of the Texas Assistive Technology Network, under the leadership of Region 4 ESC) are to ensure that students with disabilities receive assistive technology devices and services when needed to benefit from a free, appropriate public education. Assistive Technology enables students with disabilities to access the curriculum, increase independence, and participate in education and life activities. Their priorities in professional development and technical assistance focus on providing training, products and services that: build district capacity in assistive technology knowledge and skills; promote strategies for building the literacy skills of all students; and are aligned with statewide literacy initiatives.

• Texas Behavior Support Initiative  (Region 4 ESC) 20 ESC Network  The goal is to create a Positive Behavior Support System in the Texas public schools that will enable students with disabilities to receive special education supports and services in the least restrictive environment and to participate successfully in the TEKS-based curriculum and state assessment system. The purpose of this website is to provide current and relevant information related to positive behavior supports for children with disabilities.

• Evaluation for Special Education Eligibility (Region 12 ESC)  ESC Region 12 is responsible for statewide special education leadership for evaluation.  As the first point of contact regarding evaluation issues, ESC Region 12 offers the latest in training and technical assistance, with current and relevant information.

• Texas Secondary Transition and Post School Results (Region 11 ESC) 20 ESC Network  ESC Region XI provides statewide leadership and facilitates activities for the 20 ESC Region High School Transition Network and the statewide post-school outcomes committee.  The focus is to promote communication and collaboration between stakeholders and a comprehensive, coordinated, transition service delivery system in Texas that leads to improvement of post-school student outcomes.

• Multicultural and Diverse Learners (Multicultural Education) (Region 1 ESC)  The multicultural Network (MCN) is committed to assisting schools statewide to close the achievement gap between student populations via data driven, results based action plans so that no student is left behind.  The primary focus of the MCN is to help educators effectively determine appropriate educational services for all students, meet the education needs of culturally and lingually diverse (CLD) students and prevent the inappropriate referrals of CLD students to special education.

• Parent Coordination (Region 9 ESC) 20 ESC Network   The Parent Coordination Network is committed to ensuring that parents of students with disabilities receive accurate and timely information to assist them in making informed choices in their child’s education. The Network has identified the following priorities: joint training opportunities for parents and educators, collaboration with other parent training entities, and technical assistance to parents and school district personnel in the area of special education.  

• Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing ESC Regions 10, 11, and 20 provide leadership, staff development, technical assistance and support to assist Texas school districts meet the educational needs students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Priorities include student communication and competence, access to the general education curriculum, literacy, and educational interpreter training. Region 10 offers guidance related to Early Childhood and Preschool Services; Region 11 offers guidance for Communication Access, and Region 20 offers guidance on Access to General Curriculum for students who are DHH.

• Low Incidence Disabilities (Region 3 ESC)
Region III ESC has the responsibility to provide leadership to the Texas Regional ESCs for building capacity to meet the needs of students who are severely and profoundly cognitively disabled, medically fragile, and or deafblind. The goals of the project are to establish a collaborative network of stake holders; facilitate professional development to meet statewide needs; and to develop a process of evaluating the effectiveness of statewide activities.

• Services for Blind or Visually Impaired   Region 11 ESC
ESC Region XI provides statewide leadership and facilitates activities for the 20 ESC regional networks. Professional development and technical assistance focuses on building capacity to ensure students with visual impairments have comparable access to the general curriculum and improve skill areas necessary to cmpensate for visual loss.

• Legal Framework (Region 18) 20 ESC Network
The Legal Framework for the Child-Centered Process is a dynamic electronic roadmap that summarizes state and federal requirements for special education by topic. It empowers those who use it to be able to provide to every child the benefits of FAPE. It also helps with managing systems change for continuous student performance and program improvement. This statewide leadership maintains The Guide to the Admission, Review and Dismissal Process, as well as Procedural Safeguards.

• Texas Autism Conference (Region 2 ESC) 20 ESC Network
The focus of the network is continued education of and opportunities for people involved with individuals with autism.

• Texas Collaborative for Emotional Development in Schools (TxCEDS) (Region 4 ESC) The purpose of the TxCEDS project is to develop a guiding policy that promotes the well-being and mental health of children in Texas schools through the development of integrated and comprehensive support programs and services.

• Texas Statewide Leadership for Autism (Region 13 ESC) Through the network of the 20 Regional Education Service Centers (ESCs) around the state and in conjunction with the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Statewide Leadership for Autism is providing a mechanism to access training, technical assistance, support, and resources for educators who serve students with autism.

• Texas Initiative for Disproportionate Representation in Special Education (Region 1 ESC) | ESC Region 1 is a resource for schools, school districts, and charter schools in addressing the issues related to disproportionality. These include self-assessment tools, links to current research, and best practices, strategies, and trainings related to the needs of struggling students in order to lead to improvement of educational services