All she knew was that the public school system had failed her family.

Jennie Grau didn't realize that it would be hard to find a private school. She didn't know that the nearest good one was an hour away. She certainly didn't know that it cost $50,000 per year, an expense that would turn her life upside down.

A data analysis comparing 15 years of special education enrollments with parent withdrawal rates in all 1,200 Texas school districts as well as all other states that had available data shows that many more families are leaving Texas public schools and suggests that limitations on special ed are part of the reason.

It's a scene that has played out across Texas, where a target limiting special education enrollments to 8.5 percent has led many frustrated families to leave the public schools and turn to private schools or homeschooling, the Houston Chronicle has found.

"Can we stay until lunch so the boys can say goodbye to their friends?"

She asked just one question before signing the paperwork:

So when a teacher told her on a cold December morning four years ago that she was not likely ever to get dyslexia services in Conroe ISD, Grau decided on the spot to pull her second-graders out of school.

For years, the Conroe Independent School District had refused to evaluate her identical twins for special education services, even after the otherwise bright boys tested in the second percentile in reading and began showing other clear signs of dyslexia.

In Texas, unelected state officials have devised a system that has kept thousands of disabled kids out of special education. Read other installments in the series here.

Among the findings:

• It has become increasingly common for Texas parents to move their children from public school to private school or schooling at home. About 33,000 students are now pulled out annually, which is about 30 percent higher, relative to overall enrollment, than when the target took effect in 2004.

• The phenomenon has defied national trends. Nationwide, the number of children educated outside public schools is dropping, and no other state that tracks withdrawals has experienced a significant increase.

• The Texas surge in parent withdrawals has occurred primarily in school districts that have drastically cut their special education rates since 2004. In the 20 major districts with the biggest special ed declines, withdrawals have soared by 44 percent. In the 20 major districts where special ed rates haven't changed much, withdrawals have actually dropped by 18 percent.

To be sure, many factors affect rates of withdrawals from public schools, including white flight, overcrowding, religious beliefs and school performance. Still, four independent educational statisticians said the Texas data suggested that the cutting of special education was most likely a factor in the withdrawal increase.

"There is something there," said Gibbs Kanyongo, an associate professor of educational statistics at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania.

School employees and advocates said they were not surprised by the data.

Dozens said they had seen an increase in parents leaving public schools after being denied special ed.

For many, the trend was evidence that the Texas Education Agency policy had led the state to abandon some of its most vulnerable children.

"You look at these kids and they clearly need services, but you can't give it to them because you're already at 8.5, and you know that some of (those families) are going to give up. ... They're going to leave the system," said Desha Mills, who has taught in San Antonio ISD for 16 years. "We're abandoning them."

Rudy Crew, a former Oregon state education director and superintendent of the public school systems in New York City; Miami; and Sacramento, Calif., called the TEA policy an example of officials "turning a blind eye to children with disabilities" and said the withdrawal numbers were among the clearest evidence of its failure.

"All that this has done is exacerbate gaps in our society," Crew said. "It's leaving parents to shoulder the burden on their own, which means some are going to be able to do it, and some are not."

The TEA, which has denied that any child has been deprived of special ed, declined to answer questions about the data.

In a statement, Conroe ISD said it "works with all families to provide the best learning experiences for each student in the least restrictive environment."

The district's special ed rate has dropped from 10.6 percent in 2004 to 8.2 percent. In that time, an average of 513 kids have been pulled out in favor of private school or homeschooling each year — twice the average in the years before 2004. In all, more than 5,000 students have left.

Jennie Grau called her husband from the car, her voice bouncing between anger, excitement and fear.

"We put our trust in this school," she vented as she raced away from Buckalew Elementary with the twins that December day.

In many ways, the one-story brick building had shaped the previous decade of all of their lives. Jennie and her husband, David, had moved from The Heights to The Woodlands in search of a quality school for Benner and Hayden. They chose Buckalew because it had a great reputation and seemed like a good fit.

At first, it was. The Graus found a house a mile away from the school and close to David's family. The boys, who were both outgoing, easily made friends. Benner joined the school lacrosse team, and Hayden took up soccer.

David worked 10 miles down the road from the school, allowing him to serve as an assistant coach for both of his sons' teams.

The family adopted two "morkies" — Yorkshire terrier / Maltese mixes — and settled into a comfortable suburban life.

Benner and Hayden initially got good grades, records show, but they performed better on assignments that did not involve reading. On one report card, for example, Benner got 90s in math and science but a 70 in language arts, barely enough to pass.

On the recommendation of a private therapist, who noticed that the boys were ambidextrous, which is a risk factor for dyslexia, Jennie and David requested special education evaluations in 2011, when the boys were in first grade.

But Buckalew Elementary, which at the time gave special ed to just 6.3 percent of its students, said no, arguing the boys did not need help because they were passing.

The Graus asked again throughout 2011 and 2012, they said, but the answer was always the same.

Then, in September 2012, the boys tested in the second percentile in reading, records show. And at about the same time, a teacher did a "Dyslexia Checklist" that found Benner was showing 20 of the 28 warning signs of the disability.

Benner also was showing signs of anxiety and depression, records show, a likely result of frustration and failure.

Both boys were falling further behind in school, and their parents worried their problems could spiral into irreparable damage.

The parents felt sure their sons would soon receive services. But in November 2012, they got a stunning letter: The school still would not even evaluate Benner or Hayden, administrators said, because they were "making academic progress."

The Graus were incensed. They thought about hiring a lawyer, but they could not afford one.

Jennie found the principal to demand answers, but that conversation ended with yet another shock.

" 'We're not really sure if dyslexia is real,' " Jennie says she was told.

In the days after leaving Buckalew, the Graus toured several schools and visited the Neuhaus Education Center, which specializes in helping children with reading disabilities.

The search was disheartening. Few places had openings, and even fewer offered dyslexia services. The ones that did were private schools that were astronomically expensive.

"We were terrified. Absolutely terrified," Jennie said. "We knew we were running out of options."

They had already ruled out homeschooling, reasoning that if professionals could not help their sons in public school, they could not do it on their own.

Eventually, Jennie and David decided it would be best to enroll the boys in a well-respected campus almost an hour away, and supplement the in-school supports with services at Neuhaus and the Texas Reading Institute.

The family couldn't afford it, though. Together, the tuition and extra supports for both came to more than $50,000 annually, not including additional recommended vision therapy.

Insurance would not cover any of the costs.

The Graus scraped together as much as they could. David borrowed money from his family. Jennie took a part-time job as a substitute teacher. Benner and Hayden sold belongings on eBay.

Still, it wasn't enough.

Finally, just as things looked dire, an opportunity came. A health care technology company offered David a job that would pay enough to cover everything the boys needed.

The catch: The job was based in Dallas. David would have to work there five days every week. He would see his wife and kids only two days a week.

The Graus are not the only ones to have faced such a decision.

Of the more than 700 Texas families that have shared stories with the Chronicle about being denied special education, nearly 100 have said they ended up leaving public schools or leaving the state altogether. Many said the moves forced them to take new jobs or to leave jobs, to move or to put off graduate school. They did it anyway.

David took the job.