FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 8, 2024
CONTACT:
Edie Surtees
esurtees@DRTX.org
512-407-2739
DRTx Receives Children’s Health and Security Grant from Texas Access to Justice Foundation
Funding Helps Students with Disabilities in Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery Counties
HOUSTON—Disability Rights Texas (DRTx) is proud to announce that we are a recipient of the Legal Aid for Children’s Health & Security Grant from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation (TAJF). The funding is a result of a special Texas legislature appropriation to provide civil legal services for young people in the child welfare system and those experiencing mental and physical health challenges in schools and communities.
DRTx currently has a dedicated team of advocates and attorneys that serves K-12 students with disabilities throughout Texas. Their work includes ensuring timely initial evaluations for services, instruction in classrooms alongside students without disabilities, access to assistive technology, preventing discipline, restraint or seclusion because of a disability, and provision of transition services needed to prepare for life after school.
The grant will allow DRTx to hire an additional attorney for the next 18 months to provide much needed educational advocacy services for students in Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery Counties.
# # #
Disability Rights Texas (DRTx) is the federally designated legal protection and advocacy agency (P&A) for people with disabilities in Texas established in 1977. Its mission is to help people with disabilities understand and exercise their rights under the law, ensuring their full and equal participation in society.
The Texas Access to Justice Foundation (TAJF) is the leading funder of civil legal aid to the poor in Texas. Created in 1984 by the Supreme Court of Texas, TAJF support for civil legal aid benefits hundreds of thousands of low-income Texans annually including victims of crime, abused and neglected children, veterans, the elderly and the homeless.