HISD Is Uprooting Students with Disabilities — Without Warning, Without Evidence, Without a Plan

My son is bright, curious, and on the autism spectrum. He thrives because of the specialized support he's built — with teachers who know him, in a school that is his. HISD just eliminated that without a single conversation with our family.

"No notice. No transition plan. No research to justify it. Just a letter telling us he's been reassigned to a different school."

Ours is not an isolated case. Thousands of students with disabilities across the Houston Independent School District are being abruptly removed from their home campuses as part of a district-wide centralization of special education services. Families are finding out after the decision has already been made. Schools are learning which students they're losing — and gaining — with little to no information.

"This is not a resource efficiency strategy. It is a civil rights issue."

For students with disabilities — especially those on the autism spectrum and behavioral disabilities — consistency is not a preference. It is a clinical and educational necessity. Abrupt changes in environment, routine, and relationships don't just cause stress; they disrupt learning, regress hard-won progress, and can cause lasting harm. HISD's own policy changes are in direct conflict with the research, which consistently shows that inclusion within neighborhood schools improves outcomes, supports emotional well-being, and preserves the student's sense of dignity and belonging.

HISD made this decision with:

• No independent research supporting centralized segregation as a better model
• No individualized planning with students, families, or IEP/504 teams
• No meaningful notice to home campuses or receiving schools
• No transparency about the criteria used to reassign students to pre-determined schools chosen for them
• No transparency regarding specialists to aide in the support program

We are calling on HISD to immediately halt these reassignments and return to a model that serves students where they are — in their communities, alongside their peers, with the stability they need and deserve.

We demand:

Overview...

• A moratorium on all special education campus reassignments pending independent review
• Mandatory family consultation before any placement change
• Public disclosure of the evidence base — or lack thereof — behind this policy
• A commitment to neighborhood-based special education services as the default

Breakdown...

1) Halt all reassignments pending independent review

• No student is displaced until HISD presents credible evidence that hub placement produces better outcomes than neighborhood-based services
• Evidence must be peer-reviewed and independent — not self-reported by the district

2) Disclose every parent's rights and options Before any reassignment takes effect, HISD must provide written notice of:

• The right to dispute placement through the IEP process
• The right to request an alternative campus if the assigned hub cannot match current services or unaddressed family circumstances
• The right to an independent educational evaluation at district expense

 
3) Define what "specialized" actually means For every hub campus, HISD must publicly disclose:

• Staff credentials and certifications
• Staff-to-student ratios by disability category
• Which services are on-site versus contracted or rotating
• A direct comparison to what students received before reassignment

*** Parents deserve to know if this is a genuine upgrade — or a repackaged cut.

 
4) Publish a binding accountability framework HISD must establish and report measurable outcomes including:

• Baseline IEP data for every transferred student prior to reassignment
• Independent third-party progress reviews at 90 days, 6 months, and 12 months
• A public dashboard updated every semester
• A clear reversal trigger — if outcomes fall below baseline, reassignments must be undone

***If HISD cannot measure it, they cannot claim it is working.

Sign this petition and stand with the thousands of families HISD has left without answers.

"A district that moves children in the night and calls it policy has forgotten what schools are for. They tried to make our children invisible. We are making them impossible to ignore."