Humble ISD board approves TEA corrective action plan after review of suspensions of homeless students
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Summary
Trustees approved a corrective action plan addressing state findings on suspensions of students identified as homeless and outlined training, identification system changes and escalating accountability for campus leaders.
The Humble Independent School District Board of Trustees voted to approve a corrective action plan addressing complaints raised by the Texas Education Agency about out-of-school suspensions involving students identified as homeless (McKinney-Vento eligible).
Board members and administrators said the district has sharply reduced out-of-school suspensions of homeless students after changing identification and monitoring practices last fall, but the Texas Education Agency (TEA) required a formal corrective action plan to document further steps.
“Two years ago we suspended about 148 homeless students; now that number has dropped to 26,” said Dr. Brown, the district superintendent, describing recent reductions. Administrators later told trustees the number fell further in the most recent semester after additional interventions.
District officials credited several changes for the reduction: a visible flag in the student information system identifying McKinney-Vento status, mandatory annual McKinney-Vento training for campus leaders, targeted retraining in September, monthly monitoring of relevant discipline data, and new directives that assistant superintendents must approve out-of-school suspensions for students flagged as homeless except in rare, allowable circumstances such as weapons or felony-level conduct.
Mister Perkins, who has led the district’s compliance work on the issue, said the district will increase summer training for administrators and formalize consequences for repeated failures to follow the McKinney-Vento suspension rules. “When we put additional measures in place, the number went down,” Perkins said, and he said repeated infractions will be reflected in personnel evaluations and may prompt further action.
Trustees asked for specifics about campus accountability. Administrators said the corrective action plan includes: improved system alerts (a red banner) that prompt assistant-superintendent review before any out-of-school suspension of a student flagged as McKinney-Vento, mandatory refresher training, monthly compliance monitoring, and written documentation for any such suspensions. Repeated errors by a single campus administrator will lead to escalated personnel consequences.
Board members framed the work as aligning district practice with federal law protecting homeless students’ right to remain in school. “When you suspend somebody who is homeless, sometimes the school is their only place for shelter, safety and food,” one trustee said during discussion.
The board approved the corrective action plan unanimously and authorized district counsel and staff to proceed with the steps described, including staff training this summer and further monitoring. Officials said the district’s stated goal is zero out-of-school suspensions of McKinney-Vento students except where federal or state law explicitly allows removal for serious offenses.
