Shawnda Kracja doesn鈥檛 want her daughter to be known as 鈥渢he deaf kid.鈥
Kracja鈥檚 daughter is an incoming third grader at Davis Elementary, which has hosted a regional day school program for the deaf and hard of hearing for decades. But the other deaf and hard of hearing students at Davis will be moving to Harrington Elementary for the 2025-2026 school year. The Plano ISD board of trustees recently voted to close Davis and three other schools, citing budget concerns.
Plano is one of many school districts in Texas faced with hard decisions because of funding shortfalls. Disability advocates say special education funding in Texas falls short by about $2 billion鈥攍eaving school districts to foot the bill. And even wealthy districts are struggling to come up with the missing funds.
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