The report showed that spe­cial edu­ca­tion enroll­ment has climbed in recent years, with more than 857,000 stu­dents statewide in spe­cial edu­ca­tion in the 2024-25 school year. That num­ber was 498,320 seven years ago, mark­ing a 72% increase.

The num­ber of Texas stu­dents with dys­lexia con­tin­ues to increase, from 149,943 stu­dents in 2023 to 212,167 in 2024. Over the past six years, the num­ber of stu­dents enrolled in spe­cial edu­ca­tion for dys­lexia has risen by more than 636%.

Those increases coin­cide with a rise in the num­ber of spe­cial edu­ca­tion eval­u­ations con­duc­ted statewide. Last school year, more than 178,000 ini­tial eval­u­ations took place in Texas, accord­ing to the TEA’s report. Recent state fund­ing included money for those eval­u­ations, giv­ing schools an extra $1,000 for each eval­u­ation to determ­ine if a stu­dent had a dis­ab­il­ity.

Con­trib­ut­ing to the jump, a 2023 state law defined dys­lexia as a learn­ing dis­ab­il­ity, mean­ing stu­dents with dys­lexia were required to get indi­vidu­al­ized edu­ca­tion pro­grams and have access to spe­cial edu­ca­tion ser­vices.

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