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Austin district wins state appeal for Rosedale School

Austin American-Statesman - 12/13/2018

Dec. 13--The Texas Education Agency has reversed its failing rating of an Austin campus that exclusively serves students with severe special needs.

The state changed the rating for the Rosedale School from "improvement required," which is equivalent to a failing score, to "not rated."

The Rosedale School educates students with severe disabilities, including children whose medical conditions require daily skilled nursing and supervision to prevent life-threatening complications.

The agency in previous years did not give a rating to the campus and often does not rate such speciality campuses. This year, the state agency received 172 district and campus-level appeals, the highest number in years.

While Rosedale no longer is rated, the campus keeps its overall numeric grade of 56. Last year, the school served 132 students, all of whom received special education services.

"Rosedale serves students with significant cognitive disabilities, and the accountability system, I think understandably so, probably isn't able to give an accurate representation, of those types of campuses," Debra Ready, district executive director of accountability and assessment, said when the original state ratings were released in August.

Superintendent Paul Cruz also said at the time, that the district "designed the school around the academic needs of the students. We did not design it around an accountability system for the state. "It's important to us. We value the kids and the families of Rosedale and we know we need to support them. Every individual student has an individualized plan for academics but also some of their health needs that are essential."

Under the new statewide system, districts received A-through-F letter grades and campuses were labeled "met requirement" or "improvement required." Statewide, 121 school districts earned an A, 334 got a B, 232 got a C, 46 got a D, and 10 received an F. Of the more than 8,700 campuses statewide, 89.3 percent met state standards under the new system. Schools received numeric grades on a 0-to-100 scale and will get letter grades next year.

The Austin school district earned an 89, or "B," overall.

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