Data shows how far school choice funds will go with private special education programs in Texas

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect the $30,000 maximum amount students with disabilities can receive through an Education Savings Account under the current version of S.B. 2.

AUSTIN (KXAN) – At Rawson Saunders School, administrators use almost every inch of the campus as a classroom. The head of school, Laura Steinbach, explained they converted the main office kitchen into additional classrooms because they ran out of space.

The Tarrytown private school serves students with dyslexia. A walk through the campus reveals rooms where students are learning: a student working one-on-one with an Academic Language Therapist and four kids hovering around a table in a math class.

“Our class sizes are unheard of,” Executive Director Laura Steinbach said.

Rawson Saunders is one of four private schools in Austin that serve students with disabilities. These schools have been at the center of pitches from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican leaders pushing for a bill that would allow taxpayer dollars to go to private schools.

According to a KXAN analysis of tuition information, even with financial help from the state, some private schools will still be out of reach, physically and financially, for low-income students with disabilities without significant financial aid from the private sector.

Senate Bill 2 would establish a school voucher-like program in Texas, known as Education Savings Accounts, or ESA. The program that the Comptroller’s Office would run would provide $10,000 a year to participating students and a minimum of $11,500 a year to participating students with disabilities. The money can be put towards tutors, uniforms, school supplies and private school tuition.

The latest version of S.B. 2 allows special education students to access up to $30,000 to put towards their education. The amount will be determined by the student’s Individual Education Plan, or IEP, which is a plan that lays out accommodations, services, and other needs of students with disabilities and is based on a special education evaluation.

The ESA sets no limits on the income of the families who can receive the funds. Rep. Talarico, R-Austin, points out billionaire Elon Musk’s children could technically apply, even though the bill prioritizes students with disabilities and those from low-income families to receive an ESA first.

Our team reviewed tuition information from the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission and identified 52 accredited private schools in the state that specialize in serving students with disabilities. Ten of those schools do not post their tuition prices online and did not respond to KXAN’s request for information.

But of the 42 that did, data shows the yearly $11,500 ESA allotment under Senate Bill 2 for students with disabilities would only fully cover tuition at three of those schools.

However, the private schools become more affordable if the student is able to secure a higher ESA amount. The maximum $30,000 allotment would fully cover tuition at 26 of those schools — 62 percent of those that post their tuition amount.

Rawson Saunders teaches elementary and middle school-age children, all of whom must have a dyslexia diagnosis. According to the school’s website, it is not equipped to serve students who require significant accommodation and support related to behavior and conduct.

The tuition is more than $37,595 a year, not including fees.

“If you have 200 students and 92 faculty and staff – you can do the math and say, wow – that’s an expensive organization,” Steinbach said. “We don’t have a Jumbotron, but we do have a lot of human beings to take care of, and that makes the tuition pretty high.”

Concerns of a false hope

Texas Disability Rights Senior Policy Specialist Steven Aleman said S.B. 2 and similar bills create a false sense of hope for the state’s poorest families – and for students with disabilities.

“The reality is that there is such a small handful of schools that are really good at meeting their needs, and their capacity to expand is sort of very unlikely they can turn from serving 20 students to 200 students in a year or two,” Aleman said.

Under S.B. 2, which passed a House vote last Thursday, private schools are not required to admit students who receive an ESA and they are not required to provide additional financial aid or scholarships to students who can’t make up the difference in costs.

Steinbach said her school is uncompromising when it comes to class sizes and student-teacher ratios. She worries about the strings that could be attached to taking state dollars.

When asked about a scenario where 20 students with ESAs apply to the school, all of them unable to pay more than the $11,500 voucher allotted to them, she said admitting the students would require intensive fundraising.

“We have a lot of families already on financial aid, so if we have 20 new families coming in that also need financial aid and they need a substantial amount of support, then there are two answers: there is the now and the later. It means now we probably couldn’t serve all of them. The later means we need to build toward increasing our financial aid accounts, so we have more money to give,” Steinbach said.

Capitol School of Austin is another private school in Central Texas that serves students who learn differently. The school, which has been around for over 30 years, specializes in intensive speech, language and learning services.

The tuition ranges from $18,675 to $23,113 a year.

“I think our school-aged kids, they end up finding us because they might be struggling a bit in a traditional learning environment with a large group setting, and that is where our small learning environments come into play,” Capitol School Speech Pathologist Jessica Epstein said.

Epstein says right now, the school has more questions than answers about the looming school choice program.

“I think it will be really important for parents to really do their due diligence and make sure that the schools that are maybe appearing can actually offer the services that they are saying that they can offer,” Epstein said.

The non-profit, which offers lower tuition prices compared to other schools serving students with disabilities, shared a similar sentiment to Steinbach about the limitations of the school in accepting a large number of students requiring substantial financial aid.

“We wouldn’t be able to run the program the way that we do,” Epstein said. “We do have scholarship dollars that we allocate. And we’ll continue the same way that we always have in the past.”

12-foot hole, 10-foot rope

Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, attempted to amend the ESA legislation during the nearly 11-hour House vote on S.B. 2. The change would have required the state to pay the full tuition amount, up to $30,000, for students whose families’ yearly income is at or below 200% of the country’s poverty guidelines — $53,300 a year for a family of three.

“What you are doing and professing is to give them a 10-foot rope, and they are in a 12-foot hole. And so, how do you expect they get out of it?” Dutton said.

Rep. James Frank challenged Dutton, saying the average tuition for a private school in Texas is $9,700.

“Pretending that we can’t somehow give people options at the dollar amount we have – we truly can,” Frank said.

 To which, Dutton said, “So your argument is: let them all go to average private schools?”

KXAN analyzed tuition information from accredited private schools across Central Texas and found that the 10,000 ESA for students without an IEP would not fully cover 72% of private high school tuition rates. Eleven percent of Central Texas schools that teach high school students don’t post their tuition information at all.

Our analysis also shows private schools are mostly clustered in metro areas in and around Austin, with some of the most affordable schools in rural areas.

Llano Christian Academy, which accepts students from Pre-K through high school, charges $5,200 per year. It is also the only private school in Llano County accredited by one of the 19 agencies recognized by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission, or TEPSAC.

Blanco, Caldwell, Lampasas, Mason and San Saba counties don’t have any private schools accredited by one of those agencies, according to TEPSAC.

It’s unclear what will happen to students with an ESA who are unable to find a private school that will admit them, or if they cannot come up with the additional funds to pay for the school.

S.B. 2 outlines how students could lose eligibility if they re-enroll in public or open-enrollment charter schools. It creates a waiting list of other eligible students. At least 20% of spots in the ESA program can be allocated to students from families earning above 500% of the poverty guidelines, which translates to an annual income of $133,250 for a family of three.

Despite her concerns about the obligations that could come with accepting state dollars – specifically any requirements to stop focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion or mandating testing – Steinbach is excited about more parents considering educational alternatives that may be better for their child.

“Truthfully – I am afraid of the impact on education,” Steinbach said. “The concept is amazing – to be able to give money to families that they can devote to schools that make sense for their families. What I worry about is the students whose families are not in a position to take advantage of those funds, and that is a lot of families.”

KXAN’s Digital Data Reporter Christopher Adams, Investigative Photojournalist Richie Bowes, Graphic Artist Wendy Gonzalez, Director of Investigations & Innovation Josh Hinkle, News Department Intern Kevin Myers, News Department Intern Marisa Nuñez, Investigates Intern Talisa Treviño and Digital Director Kate Winkle contributed to this report.

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