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WASHINGTON (AP) – After a yearslong legal battle, federal officials are asking Texas schools that used a Medicaid reimbursement program for special education services to return $16 million that they say were billed incorrectly.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General sent an email this month to 572 school districts statewide informing officials they would need to pay anywhere from $100 to $800,000 back to the department for services billed in 2011. The charges stem from a 2017 federal health agency audit that found Texas had improperly billed the agency 238 times for services under the School Health and Related Services program.

The SHARS program reimburses schools for providing services to Medicaid-eligible students, including mental and physical therapy, nursing and screenings. Almost 950 of the state’s more than 1,200 school districts are currently enrolled in SHARS programming, according to the Texas Association of School Boards.

The 238 errors the federal government identified were for services that were deemed ineligible for reimbursement. The Inspector General’s Office also found over 94% of the services billed — including some that were eligible — did not have the required documentation.

The audit warned the Texas Health and Human Services Commission that districts would be asked to return the money paid out for ineligible services, but a series of attempted appeals postponed the repayments. School districts would have had to return more funds, but Texas’ appeals and a review by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services lowered the number of billings considered ineligible.

The state has six weeks to decide how they want to pay back the $16 million, according to the federal agency. The federal agency is not requiring the state to recoup the money directly from school districts, leaving the option of using state funding to pay the bill.

“It is up to the state to recoup from individual school districts, if it chooses to do so,” according to a spokesperson with the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.

A statement from Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission said the department has already paid the $16 million to the federal government, and that it is required by law to recoup its costs. The statement added HHSC “submitted every possible denial and request” to contest the charges.

With school budgets set for the year, Texas districts say they have little room to move around funds to pay the money back.

“Because this comes in the middle of a budget year, it makes planning for schools virtually impossible,” said Brian Woods, director of advocacy at the Texas Association of School Administrators. “Had this clawback been known prior to schools approving their budgets in the summer of 2024, then at least it could have been planned for, right?”

Pete Pape, chief financial officer for the Leander school district, called the charge “the tip of the iceberg” and expressed frustration with the Texas health agency’s lack of support for districts and their programs. Federal appeals officers said in 2023 that Texas produced “nothing at all” to dispute investigators’ findings, noting the only evidence Texas submitted in its appeal was a spreadsheet created by CMS listing the improperly billed services.

“If we acted like this as a school district, we would get blasted,” Pape said. “It’s like they just want to check off a box, they could tell the community and the legislature, ‘Yeah, we appealed it.’ So it’s frustrating.”

The Leander district owes about $99,000. Pape said he plans to appeal the charge, although the repayment notice the district received did not say if it could be appealed.

The $16 million repayment request comes after Texas slashed more than $607 million for SHARS funding as the state imposed strict limitations on the kinds of services school districts could get reimbursed for. The move, which some school staff consider overcorrection on the state’s part in reaction to the errors made in 2011, have forced some smaller schools to exit the program entirely.

Woods, the former superintendent of the Northside school district in San Antonio, said the repayments are “substantial” even for the largest districts because they are already so strapped for funding.

Northside ISD is set to return more than $420,000, one of the highest repayments the federal government is asking for.

Over 40 schools owe more than $100,000; however, more than half the schools listed owe less than $10,000. The Houston and Austin school districts are set to pay the most, with over $780,000 each.

For many districts, the notice comes as officials grapple with budget shortfalls worsened by inflation, expiring pandemic relief funds and five years without a significant raise in public school spending from the state.

“I don’t think that I’ve heard a consistent, programmatic-type plan. Most of what I hear is, ‘You got to be kidding me, right?’” Woods said of districts’ reactions. “This is on top of the multimillion-dollar cuts that we spent most of the fall talking about, and here we are with another.”

District officials hope lawmakers will provide relief after the SHARS cuts. Several special education funding bills have already been filed ahead of the state legislative session that starts next month. Woods said there is no lawmaker who serves the role of a “designated advocate” for special education funding but added that there is still time to highlight the issue before the Legislature starts.

“Concerned parents and concerned citizens just need to contact their representatives and indicate that they believe there’s a need to rectify that situation,” Woods said.

FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Bell Textron Inc., already one the largest employers in the Metroplex, has chosen its hometown of Fort Worth to build components for the next generation of military assault helicopters. The news, announced Tuesday by Bell CEO Lisa Atherton and Gov. Greg Abbott at a Bell facility in northern Fort Worth, represents an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in North Texas. The company’s new facility in Alliance is expected to create more than 500 high-paying jobs after it opens in 2025. “We are truly a Texas company,” Atherton said. Bell considered at least two other locations in other states for its $632 million plant. It will produce parts for the company’s V-280 Valor to replace the Army’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawks, developed in the 1970s by the Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky.

Bell won the coveted defense contract in 2022 for its design of the V-280, a tiltrotor aircraft that can take off or land vertically and fly at over 300 mph. The contract could be worth up to $70 billion over many years, depending on how many aircraft the Army and foreign governments purchase. Lockheed Martin and Boeing had competed during the Army’s years-long selection process. The 34-acre site that Bell chose is at 15100 N. Beach St., off Interstate 35W across the Denton County line but within the Fort Worth city limits. The site was formerly home to a Stanley Black & Decker facility. Brian Chase, vice president of international government affairs at Bell Flight, said selecting the facility was about a three-year process. He declined to name the other sites Bell considered. Jobs at the new location will be a mix of support and traditional manufacturing roles, like engineering and operations positions. It’s unclear how many roles will require security clearance. Bell is still designing the manufacturing flow of the facility, and does not yet have a timeline for when hiring could begin. Chase said Tuesday’s announcement was likely the last major site selection for the FLRAA manufacturing. The aircraft will be assembled in Amarillo and testing will be done in Grand Prairie and Arlington. Chase said locals may see aircraft flying near the testing facilities in the coming years.

AUSTIN – After extensive reviews of public comments and stakeholder input, the Railroad Commission of Texas has adopted a significant overhaul of rules regulating oil and gas waste management facilities in Texas. RRC Commissioners voted to adopt the new regulations at their open meeting today.

The regulations cover waste from oil and gas operations, such as rock and other material pulled up from the ground during drilling, as well as waste from other operations for which the Legislature has given the RRC jurisdiction including geothermal, carbon sequestration and brine mining wells.

It is the first overhaul of RRC’s waste management rules in four decades. The new rules help the RRC continue to safeguard groundwater and surface water while adapting to modern waste management practices, such as recycling produced water, and recent advancements in production methods.

SULPHUR SPRINGS (AP)- “People are uneasy and they want a safe place to put their family. And they have this attitude that it’s better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it,” said Atlas Survival Shelters CEO Ron Hubbard, amid showers of sparks and the loud buzz of welding at his bunker factory, which he says is the world’s largest, in Sulphur Springs, Texas.

Hubbard said COVID lockdowns, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war have driven sales.

On Nov. 21, in the hours after Russia’s first-ever use of an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile to attack Ukraine, Hubbard said his phone rang nonstop.

Four callers ended up buying bunkers in one day, he said, and more ended up ordering doors and other parts for shelters they were already building.

Hubbard said his bunkers are built for all disasters.

“They’re good for anything from a tornado to a hurricane to nuclear fallout, to a pandemic to even a volcano erupting,” he said, sweeping his arms toward a massive warehouse where more than 50 different bunkers were under construction.

A loaded shotgun at arm’s length and metal mesh window shields to block Molotov cocktails nearby, Hubbard said he started his company after building his own bunker about 10 years ago. He says callers ask about prices — $20,000 to multimillions, averaging $500,000 — and installations — they can go just about anywhere. He said most days he sells at least one bunker.

Under Hubbard’s doomsday scenario, global tensions could lead to World War III, a situation he is prepared to live through.

“The good news about nuclear warfare,” he said, “if there ever was any, that it’s very survivable if you’re not killed in the initial blast.”

He’s not wrong, say U.S. government disaster preparedness experts.

Story initially publised by AP. Full story can be read by clicking here .