HISD dad frustrated of lack of information on teacher complaint process

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Through the end of 2024, Jeremy Lawrence said his daughter missed two gym class tests with excused absences. He said the teacher was not helping with rescheduling the tests and that he tried to resolve it with the teacher and principal, but never could. His daughter had two zeros on the books.

"Everything has been delay, delay, delay," Lawrence said.

He decided to file a formal complaint against the teacher, but was surprised to find the process of doing that murky.

"HISD makes it very, very difficult to find the process," Lawrence said.

After locating the form on the HISD website, he said he filed the complaint on Jan. 28, but never heard back. In March, he said he started to email around and finally had a hearing scheduled for April. The hearing determined that the teacher would be talked to and would receive training on how to better deal with situations like this in the future, according to official documentation sent to Lawrence.

He felt that wasn't good enough and appealed the decision, and waited some more. It wasn't until this week, when he told HISD they needed to schedule a meeting or he'd contact ABC13, that they offered him a meeting in two weeks.

"This, unfortunately, is not going to be resolved before the end of the school year, and I don't know what HISD is going to do with the complaint when the school year ends," Lawrence said.

Through a Google search, ABC13 was able to find the complaint form, but the steps of what happens next are harder to find. HISD told Eyewitness News that they can be found it in the Board Policy Handbook. But there's no mention of how long the appeal process should or could last.

Lawrence said he wants HISD to make the information easier to find by making it more available on the website and posting it in schools.

"It comes down to if you have the persistence to keep pushing, and the time to keep looking, and luckily my child has a parent that can do that, but not everyone has that time," Lawrence said.

HISD did not answer questions about how quickly families should expect complaint and appeal meetings to be scheduled. ABC13 submitted open records requests to learn how often complaints are being filed and how they are typically resolved.

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