San Antonio schools hit by $600 million cut in school health and related services spending

SAN ANTONIO — These are budget cuts that could impact thousands of students across San Antonio, regardless of the school district they attend. More than $600 million has been cut from the School Health and Related Services program.

The money is largely used to help students with health disabilities. We contacted multiple school districts in San Antonio but only heard back from the Northside Independent School District, the largest school district in the city.

“The SHARS program only covers students who require medical care while in our schools,” said Tiffany Contreras, deputy superintendent for budget and finance at Northside ISD.

Contreras said the program reimburses school districts for medical and transportation costs.

“In previous years it was about $20 million for Northside ISD and last year it was $14 million, which was a reduction of over $6 million for us,” Contreras said.

So why is this money being cut? We reached out to Texas Health and Human Services to ask. The department told us the decision was made following a 2017 audit and report that suggested ending funding for the program.

Ultimately, the program was not completely curtailed, but significantly reduced.

The department further states that it “worked diligently with our federal oversight partners to maintain SHARS funding and rescind the defunding decision. This was a federal decision not to maintain SHARS funding, not a state decision.”

The loss of money did not change programs or resources available to Northside ISD students, but Contreras says he left the district in search of ways to make ends meet.

“We haven’t made any drastic changes at this point, but obviously there are conversations going on right now with our Board to talk about the deficit that we have,” Contreras said.