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Understanding the Challenges Facing Families of Children with Autism in Texas Schools
Finding community after a child’s autism diagnosis key bit of advice.
Published by MYSA on May 1, 2025
The world, or at least the United States, took great strides towards autism acceptance. Texas schools have expanded services and testing, and awareness of autism is on the rise. But there remains a huge barrier to entry for parents first dipping into the special education enrollment process – a system laden with legalese, legislative hurdles and procedural pitfalls.
According to data compiled by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there’s been a steady rise in autism diagnoses in children under 8. In 2018, one in 44 children under 8 were diagnosed. That figure climbs to one in 36 by 2023.
The rise in overall special education diagnoses is echoed at Boerne Independent School District. There were 2,027 students in a special education program in the district this school year – a jump of 268 since last school year, 477 since 2022-23 and 681 since the year before that.
“It has had a steady increase over the last five years in special education evaluations,” a Boerne ISD spokesperson told MySA, noting more than 18% of the student population receives special education services.
For Colette Garcia Kerns, however, getting her daughter’s medical autism diagnosis recognized within Boerne ISD was a futile effort. She spent months battling back and forth with the district, having her daughter evaluated multiple times. Despite a neuropsychologist vouching for her daughter’s autism diagnosis, the school wasn’t budging. In fact, Kerns says Boerne admins chalked it up to “at home” issues despite offering some support services, like sensory hallways.
From Kerns’ perspective, the district was all but admitting to a diagnosis, identifying autism-adjacent symptoms and smaller diagnoses.
The school district denies these claims. Boerne ISD says it not only meets federal and state mandates for special education but is also willing to work with students to close gaps in academic and social learning. However, it’s this misalignment between a medical and educational autism diagnosis that can so often lead to tension between educators parents.
“That’s where things potentially get tricky, because the medical model for autism is not necessarily aligned with the educational model for identifying autism,” Dr. Coleman Heckman, Northside ISD’s director of psychological and related services, told MySA.
Heckman and a nurse practitioner with the Neurosciences Center at CHRISTUS Children’s, Katherine Holt, both acknowledge the varying criteria between a medical and educational diagnosis. While medical practitioners look at a broad range of symptoms, school districts have a government-mandated list of boxes to check before tacking the label onto a child’s official paperwork. In a nutshell, if there’s no clear academic struggle, the school district’s hands are tied.
Though, Heckman says most educators and administrators will find ways fill to any communication or socialization needs through support services with or without an autism diagnosis. But even if a child checks all the state boxes, the process suddenly requires parents to become legal experts, acronym aficionados and strong-willed yet even-keeled negotiators.
An educational diagnoses unlocks an autism supplement under the Texas Education Agency, unfurling a laundry list of additional services districts are required to offer. But the path to this point is frothed with legal pitfalls, says Holt. Formal letters are needed to call for sit downs, triggering a 45-day timeline to negotiate services. This timeline only includes business days, and a verbal request can lead to a lack of paper trial (eliminating lawsuit potential) and lead to a Response to Intervention from a school district which is not legally enforceable.
What makes things more difficult, in what can already be a heightened emotional battle pitting parents against districts, as was the case with Kerns, is that evaluations are limited to the window of time in which they’re conducted. Juan Hernandez, director of special education support services at Brighton Center, says most of the time it’s about finding a learning deficit in these evaluations. But he also admits that a good day for a kid can spell a less than accurate evaluation report.
“What I see as a professional is that sometimes it comes down to staffing. Sometimes it comes down to a bunch of different factors, but evaluators have to see the need is what I’ll say,” Hernandez told MySA. “It’s difficult if a kid is having a great day and they observe them a couple times while they’re having great days. They’re not going to see a need for specialized services.”
In reality, there doesn’t seem to be a wide-ranging public education model that directly solves these issues, either. San Antonio Charter Moms Founder Inga Cotton explains that charter schools are facing the same lack of funding traditional ISDs are, making it difficult to stay staffed.
Rather, she says it’s really up to parents to know their child and what needs arise with their particular autism experience and do the research. Though, Cotton’s network of moms on Facebook and website resources make it easier than it was 15 years ago, at least in San Antonio.
“It’s about prioritizing this kiddo’s education because children with autism become adults with autism. How much weight do we put on buying a car, buying a house, getting a job? How much time and effort do we put into learning things we need to learn, reading through the documents that we have to read through before putting our signature on a page? How much more important is getting our child prepared for when we’re not here on earth anymore,” Hernandez said. “I really put a big push on parents – please make sure you make the time to prioritize this.”
Zachary-Taylor Wright
Trending Digital Reporter
Zachary-Taylor Wright is a local native, spending half his time in the Texas Hill Country, namely Boerne, and the Alamo City. He fell in love with politics and news reporting during his time at San Antonio College where he was the editor of the college district newspaper. Now, he’s back in the city where it all began.
