The InformED Report for February 18, 2017 began in Texas, where federal officials were preparing a second round of investigation into whether the state had held down the number of students receiving special education. It then turned to Turkey, where UNICEF reported real progress in enrolling Syrian refugee children but warned that hundreds of thousands were still out of school. The spotlight went to chefs in the United Kingdom heading into classrooms to teach children about food.
In this edition
- Federal officials planned site visits to Texas districts the week of February 27 to examine whether the state had capped special education at 8.5 percent of students.
- The Houston Chronicle’s “Denied” series reported that Texas had set a target in 2004 for how many students should receive special education.
- UNICEF said more than 40 percent of Syrian refugee children of school age in Turkey, about 380,000, were missing out on education.
- More than 45 chefs from the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts planned 55 food education sessions in 26 U.K. schools during the first National Adopt a School Week.
A second round of federal investigation into Texas special education
Federal officials told the Texas Education Agency in a letter on January 19, 2017 that they would return to the state the week of February 27 to visit specific districts and schools, Aliyya Swaby reported in The Texas Tribune. The visits followed a listening tour of five Texas cities, where U.S. Department of Education officials heard from the public about special education. The investigation was examining whether the agency violated federal law in the way students were evaluated for special education.
The inquiry grew out of the Houston Chronicle’s investigative series “Denied,” which reported that in 2004 Texas set a figure for the share of students who should receive special education, and that tens of thousands of children had paid the price. The investigation would determine whether the agency had in effect capped special education services at 8.5 percent of students, after the Chronicle reported that eligible students were being purposely excluded. TEA officials repeatedly denied capping services. In a November letter to federal officials, they said districts may have misunderstood the 8.5 percent rate as an absolute maximum. Federal officials said they needed documents, site visits and interviews with agency staff before reaching a decision.
Parents were also speaking out. At a listening session in the Rio Grande Valley, parents described educators who had not been trained on what services the law requires, and Spanish-speaking families said they had not been given resources to advocate for their children. For district leaders well beyond Texas, the case was a warning about how an accountability indicator can become a ceiling in practice. A measure meant to flag unusual identification rates can, once it carries consequences, discourage schools from evaluating children who need help.
Syrian refugee children in Turkey and the risk of a “lost generation”
Nearly half a million Syrian refugee children were enrolled in schools in Turkey, UNICEF said on January 19, 2017, after an increase of more than 50 percent since the previous June. Even so, more than 40 percent of school-age Syrian children in the country, about 380,000, were still missing out on education. “For the first time since the start of the Syrian crisis, there are more Syrian children in Turkey attending class than there are out of school,” said Justin Forsyth, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, after visiting UNICEF programs in southern Turkey.
Forsyth praised Turkey for the achievement but warned that “unless more resources are provided, there is still a very real risk of a ‘lost generation’ of Syrian children, deprived of the skills they will one day need to rebuild their country.” Al Jazeera reported that, according to the Turkish government, close to half a million of the 1.2 million Syrian children in Turkey were enrolled in its schools. The figures showed real progress and a gap that was still very large.
InformED Report spotlight: chefs go back to school
Members of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts were preparing to return to the classroom for the charity’s first official National Adopt a School Week, from February 6 to 10, 2017, Amanda Afiya reported in The Caterer. More than 45 chefs would deliver 55 food and front-of-house education sessions in 26 schools across the U.K., reaching more than 1,500 children. Among those taking part were Gary Jones of Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Phil Howard of Elystan Street and Giorgio Locatelli of Locanda Locatelli.
The academy’s Adopt a School program teaches children about food, cooking, healthy eating and where food comes from, including growing it, and the charity estimated it had reached hundreds of thousands of children since it began. For schools, the appeal was clear. Professional chefs bring skills and enthusiasm that a busy timetable rarely allows, and a lesson about where food comes from can support work on health and nutrition across the year.
Further reading from that week
- Chicago Tribune: Personal experiences spark career choice for special education teachers
- San Antonio Express-News: Federal authorities to visit San Antonio districts in special ed probe
- The Huffington Post: What DeVos Means For Special Education
Sources
- Aliyya Swaby, “Federal officials plan second round of investigation on Texas special ed,” The Texas Tribune, January 19, 2017.
- Houston Chronicle, “Denied” (investigative series), 2016.
- UNICEF, “More than 40 percent of Syrian refugee children in Turkey missing out on education,” press release, January 19, 2017.
- Al Jazeera, “40% of Syrian children in Turkey not in school,” January 19, 2017.
- Amanda Afiya, “National Adopt a School Week to deliver food education to 1,500 children,” The Caterer, January 2017.
About the InformED Report
The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on February 18, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.
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