State of Texas, TEA Establish SSES Program for Special Education Students

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In October, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced the establishment of the Supplementary Special Education Services (SSES) program.

SSES are on-line accounts that will be made available to eligible parents of students with disabilities that have been impacted by COVID-19 school closures. Families of students with eligible disabilities can use the on-line accounts to obtain goods and services up to a specific dollar amount that supplement what otherwise happens in school to help their child make more educational progress.

Tracy Bailey, Aldine ISD’s Executive Director of Special Education, said this is a win-win for Aldine ISD Special Education students and their families.

“This is a great opportunity for students with disabilities,” Bailey said. “This program will supplement the services our Aldine special educators provide and help mitigate some of the educational gaps that were caused due to COVID-19 school closures.

Highlights of the SSES program include:

•Up to 20,000 accounts will be available for families across Texas whose children have eligible disabilities.

•$1,500 per eligible student for reimbursement of qualified services, which will be increased in the event there are fewer applications than available accounts or proportionally reduced for non low-income families in the event there are more applicants than available accounts.

•Families and students who are enrolled in a Texas public school this year (2020-21), were enrolled during the initial COVID-19 school closures during the 2019-20 school year and were identified as having low incidence disability (e.g., an intellectual disability, a developmental disability, a visual impairment, hearing loss, a significant physical disability, multiple disabilities, or are on the autistic spectrum).

•Only students with an Individual Education Program (IEP) will be eligible, and the students’ IEP must indicate eligibility for IDEA stemming from a lowincidence disability.

•The family application will be made available in late 2020. The application window will remain open for 4 months, with two 2-month windows to facilitate batched application approval.

For more information, go to the link https://tea.texas.gov/academics/special-student-populations/special-education/supplemental-special-education-services-sses.