Report: English-language learners cut from special education

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Under pressure from the state, some Texas school districts are reducing the number of special education students by shutting out thousands of English-language learners in a move critics call clear discrimination against immigrant families.

The Texas Education Agency says ideally just 8.5 percent of the student population should be in special education, and has audited school districts for exceeding the benchmark and penalized districts for over-identification of minorities.

"Even if the policy was not meant to be discriminatory, it has clearly had that effect," said Gary Orfield, a social scientist and co-founder of The Civil Rights Project while at Harvard University, who called it the most outrageous education policy he's seen.

Part of the reason for the drop in English learners, they said, is that parents are unable to fight the hurdles that the state agency target has introduced for families seeking special education.