Our Journey
LearningDifferences.Info® was born from our family’s own journey navigating the world of special education. Like many parents, we began with uncertainty. There were evaluations, therapies, specialists, ARD meetings, difficult decisions, and countless questions. We quickly learned that raising a child with learning differences often requires becoming an advocate, researcher, teacher, and care coordinator all at once.Early intervention can make a tremendous difference, but families soon discover that another important question follows: Where can my child receive the best education?LearningDifferences.Info® was created to make information about special education programs and services across public schools easier to access, understand, and compare.
Why We Built LearningDifferences.Info®
LearningDifferences.Info® helps Texas families make informed decisions about public schools by providing clear, data-driven insights into special education services, support, and outcomes. Our goal is to make special education more transparent, understandable, and accountable for everyone.
Looking Beyond Affluent Neighborhoods
Many traditional school rankings are strongly influenced by household income, home values, and parental educational attainment. Preliminary analyses in Texas found no meaningful relationship between neighborhood household income and the SPED Support Score, suggesting that schools supporting students with disabilities effectively can be found in communities across the state, regardless of the affluence of the surrounding community. These findings are encouraging and will continue to be evaluated as additional states are incorporated into the database.
What You Will Find on LearningDifferences.Info®
Families may find information such as disability profiles, inclusion practices, staffing information, academic growth and outcomes, graduation and dropout rates, discipline trends, alternate assessment participation, special education enrollment, and campus-specific SPED Support Scores and Percentiles.Some highly specialized educational settings are not included in statewide rankings because they serve unique populations and are not directly comparable to traditional schools. However, available information for these schools remains visible on the website.For readers interested in learning more about how the SPED Support Score is developed, please visit our SPED Support Scoring Methodology page.
A Personal Note
LearningDifferences.Info® started as a small personal project. Today, it continues to evolve because we know firsthand how difficult it can be to find reliable information and make educational decisions for a child with learning differences.If LearningDifferences.Info® saves families months of frustration, helps a parent ask a better question during an ARD meeting, or helps a child find a school where they are understood, supported, and challenged appropriately, then this effort has been worthwhile.
9,000+ Texas schools analyzed. Preliminary Texas analyses found no meaningful relationship between neighborhood household income and the SPED Support Score.