AUSTIN (March 11, 2009)--An Austin state judge said Wednesday resolution of the ongoing dispute between the Mexia State School and the Mexia Independent School District is in the hands of state legislators.
During a hearing Wednesday afternoon in 53rd State District Court in Travis County,

Judge Scott Jenkins denied the district’s request for a temporary injunction that would have required the Mexia State School to send staff members to accompany residents to class in Mexia ISD schools until a lawsuit over whether the state school should provide that supervision is resolved.

Jenkins said he sympathized with the district’s situation, but ruled that under existing law, he had to deny the temporary injunction.

He said the Legislature should deal with the issue during its current session.

During the proceedings, Mexia ISD Superintendent Jason Ceyanes testified that state school staff supervision of the residents is necessary, because many of the juvenile residents whom the district is legally obligated to educate are charged with violent felony offenses, such as rape, murder, and assault, but have been ruled incompetent to stand trial.

On the first day of the school year, the district says the state school pulled the staff members who had accompanied residents to the district’s alternative campus.

A disagreement ensued between the superintendents of the Mexia ISD and the state school because no provision requiring the support staff was included in an interlocal agreement signed by both entities.

Ceyanes said the lawsuit aims to restore state school staff supervision of students educated in Mexia ISD schools and to increase classroom space on the state school campus for residents whose behavioral, mental or physical problems can’t be managed on the district’s campuses.

Laura Albrecht, a spokeswoman for the Department of Aging and Disability Services, the parent agency of the state school system, said the agency respects the judge’s decision.

She said DADS' goal is to make sure the children in the state schools receive the education guaranteed them by federal law.

She said the agency would continue to work with the school district.

Ceyanes, meanwhile, said the district would weigh its options about the next step in its lawsuit.

He plans to return to Austin Thursday, to testify before a House committee on a bill intended to tighten safeguards to prevent abuse of residents at state facilities such as the Mexia State School.

Albrecht said DADS representatives would also testify Thursday.
The developments Wednesday came a day after a private group, which lobbies for the rights of the disabled in Texas, filed a complaint against the school district with the Texas Education Agency.

The complaint by Advocacy, Inc. accuses the Mexia ISD of improperly segregating its students