Texas Governor Greg Abbott has reshuffled the state’s key advisory body on special education, tapping three new members and renewing the terms of three others — a move that will shape disability policy in one of the nation’s largest public school systems for the next four years.
Abbott announced the appointments to the Special Education Continuing Advisory Committee, naming Rebecca Faulkner, Felicia Penn, and Kristen Tuttle Urbanovsky as new members, while reappointing Claudia Cavazos, April Estrada, Ed.D., and Amy Litzinger. All six will serve terms expiring February 1, 2029.
Why This Committee Matters
It’s easy to overlook an advisory committee appointment. But this one carries real weight. The Continuing Advisory Committee — known as the CAC — provides direct policy guidance on special education and related services for children with disabilities across Texas, a state that educates more than five million public school students.
The committee’s responsibilities go well beyond rubber-stamping agency decisions. According to the Texas Education Agency, the CAC advises on unmet needs in the special education system, reviews corrective action plans, weighs in on policies for coordinating services across agencies, and helps set standards for identifying significant disproportionality — the thorny issue of whether certain student populations are being over- or under-identified for special education. On top of that, the committee submits biennial reports directly to the state legislature.
That’s a lot of ground to cover. And the people doing it aren’t just bureaucrats.
A Deliberately Broad Table
By design, the CAC draws from a wide cross-section of stakeholders. Members include parents of children with disabilities, individuals who themselves have disabilities, classroom teachers, higher education representatives, school administrators, state agency officials, private school representatives, vocational organization reps, and even representatives from child welfare and corrections agencies. The governor appoints members to four-year staggered terms — a structure designed to ensure continuity even as the committee’s composition gradually evolves.
Still, that breadth also reflects just how many systems intersect when it comes to serving students with disabilities. It’s not a single-agency problem. Never has been.
What Comes Next
The committee doesn’t exactly operate in the shadows. CAC meetings are held quarterly, with upcoming sessions scheduled for dates including June 18, 2025 and October 15, 2025. Agendas and minutes are posted publicly, giving parents and advocates a window into the committee’s deliberations.
For the newly appointed and reappointed members, those meetings will come quickly. Texas has faced ongoing scrutiny over its special education practices — including a federally mandated corrective action period that began after the state was found to have artificially capped the percentage of students receiving services. The work ahead, in other words, isn’t ceremonial.
Four years is a long time in education policy. But for the families counting on this committee to get it right, it’s never quite long enough.
