Disability Rights Texas

Investigators surveyed 14 polling places in the county last year and found some didn't meet all the department's accessibility requirements.

Disability Rights Texas filed a federal lawsuit against the school district in 2021 over its failure to conduct special education evaluations within the legally required timeframe. The Austin ISD school board voted to approve the settlement last month.

The Texas Education Agency has been investigating the school district for years because it hasn't been evaluating students within a legally required timeframe. TEA wants to install a management team in the special ed department to come up with a plan to fix this problem.

Disability Rights Texas first filed a lawsuit against Austin ISD over delayed evaluations for special education services in 2021. The group sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency on Thursday calling for an investigation into the ongoing backlog.

Disability rights advocates say the state has not provided enough guidance about the type of help people with disabilities can and cannot receive under new voting laws passed last year.

For some Texans, a blackout could be a death sentence. They and their supporters are calling on the state to do more to protect them.

The bill now goes to the full Senate. Advocates say SB 1 would limit the types of accommodations voters with disabilities could receive at the polls and while voting by mail.

Some AISD families have been waiting for more than a year to get their children evaluated. Disability Rights Texas called the delays a "direct violation of the timelines established by federal and state law."