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Lancaster ISD reports serving 894 special education students; presents staffing and assessment gains
Summary
Special education director reported the district supports 894 students with disabilities, detailed staffing (49 admin/instructional staff, 50 special education teachers, ~60 paraprofessionals), and showed assessment gains in STAR measures and an SPED graduation rate of 89%; presenters noted state reporting rules affect public graduation-rate calculations for students who remain in programs past age 18.
Miss Cromer presented the district’s special education update for the 2025–26 school year, detailing staffing, services and student outcomes. She said Lancaster ISD currently supports 894 students with disabilities and listed workforce figures: about 49 administrative and instructional support staff (including nine contract staff), 50 special education teachers, six dyslexia teachers and approximately 60 paraprofessionals.
Cromer described the continuum of services — from general education inclusion to specialized, self-contained settings — and said the district provides related services including speech, occupational and physical therapy, counseling and transition services such as community access and pre-employment coaching with partners like local workforce programs. She announced the Tiger Coffee Shop Cart at the high school will open in January as a student-run transition opportunity.
On assessment performance, Cromer said STAR results for students with disabilities showed improvements in most grade levels year over year and shared unmasked RDA data (not yet finalized for public release) with level-3 results in math, science and social studies and a level-2 in reading. She noted the SPED graduation metric reported 89% of special education students earned a high school diploma in 2025; the remainder are served in the district’s 18-plus program and do not count the same way in state graduation-rate calculations.
Trustees praised the work and asked questions about transfer students, combined disability categories and staffing changes; Cromer said the district has increased staff to respond to higher enrollment and that some increases reflect both transfers and newly identified students.
Next steps: staff will continue training, stakeholder engagement events and efforts to increase early-childhood inclusion percentages.
