During a perimeter check on August 25, the second week of the new school year, Clear Creek Elementary School administrators discovered that a third grader who was supposedly attending a special education life skills class was alone on an outside playground. She said she found a .

“I’m told it was only a few minutes, thankfully,” she said, noting that she wasn’t given the chance to see the video footage.

On August 23, days before Zwary’s daughter disappeared, another Army wife, Brianna Greene, who was also stationed at Fort Hood, told the Killeen Board of Education that another school in On Post, Montague Village She spoke of her concerns about the overcrowding of special education classrooms in elementary schools.

“As a parent, I find it despicable to have 22 autistic students in a class with one teacher and two aides, because we don’t study the symptoms of autism. From what I read, one of the big problems is running away from home,” Greene said. She told the board she witnessed three of her students in her son’s class attempt to escape, and three “overwhelmed” staff members struggled to contain them. rice field.

“Usually before board meetings, you guys say a prayer, but sometimes you hit my head with a dagger because you know nothing is going on with these kids.” “These kids aren’t educated with 22 kids in a class. They’re not sardines. You can’t raise money from a country or a government without educating people because it’s a scam.”

Killeen Independent School District officials say part of the problem is their inability to find qualified special education applicants. , employs 351 full-time special education teachers.

KISD Superintendent John Kraft said at the August 23 board meeting:

After more than 30 years of lawsuits in special education cases, Sonja Kerr, an attorney at Conell Michael Kerr, LLP, said the U.S. Department of Education’s 2016 investigation failed to bring about a solution to Texas’ special education problem. She said she believes congressional action will be required. About the change after 6 years.

“Unless the federal government intervenes and does something, which I don’t think will happen, I think the IDEA[Education for Persons with Disabilities Act]is effectively a dead end in Texas. No,” Kerr said by phone on Thursday.

In October 2019, months before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt, Zwary, her husband, and their children traveled from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Fort Hood when a Marine spouse decided to join the Army. moved to

“This had nothing to do with school, but it was confusing,” she said when asked about her family’s move to Texas. I moved to .It was a mess.”

The mother acknowledged that her daughter was at “flight risk,” a common symptom of children on the autism spectrum, adding that she would “run if she could.”

Still, she said more should have been done to ensure her child’s safety.

“If we leave her behind, we’ll be in trouble, we’ll need someone to come inspect our house, and there will be a hoax report made about us,” she said. “But schools can do this and act like nothing happened.”

Zwary said her daughter was allowed to transfer from the base’s school to Reese Creek Elementary School in Killeen.

“In fact, this will be my fifth different school in three years,” she said of her daughter, noting that the recent move was a family decision.

“The whole experience[with KISD]was pretty painful for my child,” she said. “Consistency is key when it comes to autism.”

An Army wife compared her experience in Texas to her experience as a special education aide in Pennsylvania before the move.

“I’ve seen a big difference in the way Pennsylvania handles special education. It’s so different,” Zwally said Friday.

At every KISD school her daughter attended, with the exception of Reeces Creek, school officials provided her daughter with language and occupational therapy services “very quickly,” despite maternal opposition and signs of child regression. has decreased.

Military mother grows fed up with state’s subpar special education program after federal government discovers Texas failed to serve thousands of students with special education needs Join more and more military parents.

Greene is particularly frustrated by the federal government’s lack of response to the military’s concerns about the children stationed at Fort Hood.

“What’s really funny is that sometimes Texas operates as its own country, but it doesn’t,” Green said in a phone call to the Herald. It means you have to,” he said. “Why should I spend money to get a lawyer just to get the service my children deserve?”

Ms. Green said she was “three to three” because she had to pay for private evaluations of her three children, which should be provided free under federal law.

“I’m not going to waste my kids’ education or waste my time waiting for them to do what they need to do,” she said. We are not asking Killeen ISD to do what federal law mandates.”

Carr, who has decades of experience in special education, expressed concern in a phone call on Thursday about whether the state’s baffling program will be fixed.

“I don’t think state violations can be resolved through litigation alone. They will only be fixed when parents go to Congress,” Carr said. I don’t have much hope that they are going to do what they are supposed to do, especially as they face resistance.”

Lawyers said that “back when people were normal,” if the federal government found a state violating the IDEA, the state would move “heaven and earth” to fix it.

“That’s not the situation we have now,” she said.

Carr said the state’s education hearing system is so “broken” that other attorneys often don’t accept special education cases.

“I think the Moody case is a perfect example of that,” she said, referring to former Killeen client Stephanie Moody. It turned out that there was no remedy for it,” she said.

For the past eight years, Moody, a mother of two and wife of a Purple Heart Army veteran who has completed eight tours abroad, has fought KISD over her children’s special education services. receive educational services;

“They literally threatened him (Moody’s son) that he would have to go to a more restrictive environment,” Carr explained, explaining one of Moody’s IDEA claims to the district.

“We shouldn’t have the problems we have,” she said. “And we have a problem because the Texas Department of Education allowed IDEA to erode a situation that would be a dead letter in Texas. It doesn’t really exist. On paper ( There may be an individualized education plan) but there really aren’t any special education services in Texas. , is not what the IDEA service should be.”

Parents of KISD say the recent string of special education problems could have been avoided.

The Herald announced in March that parents and staff at KISD named “CASTLE,” a communicative, academic, social, learning and teaching environment, a program designed for students with autism-related challenges. I have received information that the school district is closing.

KISD spokeswoman Taina Maya explained in response to Herald’s question in March: district, and to create a five-year plan. ”

Currently, CASTLE I students are served in the district’s Behavioral Management Unit and CASTLE II students are served in the Skills Unit, increasing the number of students in Skills and BMU classes.

Maya said the school district has approved additional alternative facilities for campuses that exceed the projected number of special education, such as Montague Village.

In response to a Herald question about overcrowding in Montagu, Maya said, “The school district tries to anticipate summer enrollment trends, but levels classes after two weeks of student enrollments have stabilized. We are trying to make it better,” he said. “The campus has implemented a process to remove students from its roster. Therefore, the number of special education teachers in Montague Village may change as assignments are added and adjusted for enrollment. “