Knox County Schools launches special education task force

Knox County Schools Superintendent Jon Rysewyk announced the creation of the Special Education Task Force designed to address concerns about how the district is supporting its special education students.That task force will include one teacher and nine parents chosen from a wide variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives in special education.“I'm pleased to announce that this task force will convene their first meeting later this month and we'll meet over the course of summer to generate a set of meaningful and actionable recommendations with our staff and to the board,” said Rysewyk.The task force will be tasked with identifying meaningful and actionable recommendations for the district to improve special education services and support for students and families.Superintendent Rysewyk announced the task force at last week’s board meeting. Its formation is a direct responses to parents in Knox County pushing for more resources and support for students.“I just wanna thank the people that are willing to serve on that because I know a lot of times, we put people on committees and there’s some criticisms there,” said board member Kristi Kristy. “I am very thankful and grateful for the people who signed on ad are willing to help us with this work.”The district is also developing an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) policy where students would be able to have their ABA therapist present in the classroom.Applied Behavior Analysis is a therapy used to improve social skills and increase helpful behavior in children with autism through direct interventions, including positive and negative reinforcement. Parents in Knox County have been advocating for this to be a resource for children on the autism spectrum.Board member Katherine Bike is among the supporters of the policy and is the one who pushed for discussion. Bike says she has experience with ABA through both her own experiences with autism and through her son who’s also autistic.“I know ABA therapy can be controversial for some and also sometimes misunderstood and that’s where conversation needs to start,” said Bike.Some board members expressed concerns that the ABA policy could potentially be limiting or possibly interfere with a student’s medical accommodations.“Educational interventions are different from medical interventions. While they may cross-cross and while they may be similar, we aren’t qualified to question that medical diagnosis,” said board member Jennifer Owens.”Despite these concerns, multiple parents told board members last week that they feel that both the policy and task force are a step in the right direction.“Thank you so much, sincerely, for actually having a discussion about this. I personally have been asking for these services for my son for over three years and have been told no. So, I can’t tell you how much it means that we’re actually having meaningful discussion about this,” said parent Alison Pasternak.The task force will have their first meeting later this month and will have meetings throughout the summer. Meetings will be closed to the public to protect potentially sensitive conversations.