Trustees reviewed a request to renew psychological services contracts after special-education staff told the Nov. 6 Business & Support Committee that in‑district capacity is insufficient to meet current demand.

Staff reported that psychological referral volume has risen steadily since the start of the school year. As of the Friday before the meeting staff said a single in-house psychologist had completed 40 initial referrals and that across the district there were roughly 145 initial evaluations pending. Staff explained that TEA requires initial evaluations to be completed within 45 school days and that the district has set an internal 40-school-day target to avoid late reporting.

Panelists gave a snapshot of external providers currently used: "She has done, as of last week, 40 40 referrals," a staff member said of an in-house clinician; staff also listed counts for contracted providers (e.g., Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez: 17; Dr. Miranda: 24; Dr. Laura Hernandez: 25). Staff said missing one day of a timeline requires reporting to TEA and noted that last year the district missed two timelines (which were accepted by TEA due to student absences) out of roughly 450 initials.

Trustees asked about rotation of vendor assignments, value comparisons across providers and whether contracting more staff would produce long-term savings. Staff said contracted clinicians are used on a rotation and that adding in-house psychologists could reduce reliance on more expensive expedited vendor evaluations; the district will monitor caseloads and return with compliance and timeline metrics for board review.

No formal contract award was recorded at the committee; the item was presented for review and trustees requested additional compliance data (per-case timeline tracking) before final action at the regular board meeting.