Parents ask Knox County School Board to commit to special education changes

Tiffany Matthews says a team of teachers oversees her son’s individualized education program (IEP) for autism at Knoxville’s New Hopewell Elementary School.Matthews is grateful for the work they do, but she says those teachers are largely unsupported in their work, which includes making modifications.Modifications are changes in what a student is expected to learn based on their individual abilities. This process could take hours depending on the child and Matthews says her sons’ teachers lack training in how to make them.“I wish they had more support from the Central Office to truly achieve the superintendent’s fourth stated priority success for every student and uphold my son’s legal education rights,” said Matthews. “It is unfair for my son’s teachers and special education teachers to spend time out outside of their regular planning hours preparing modified content which takes hours to complete.”Matthews explained her family’s concerns to the Knox County School Board Thursday night along with other parents who are demanding an update on the promised resources and changes to the district’s special education program.Melanie Flurie also spoke on the topic.Flurie says school leaders have continuously told her that the team of teachers responsible for her son Elijah’s IEP is understaffed. The IEP allows Flurie’s son to partake in general classes, but she says he’s either taken out of them and placed in special needs classes or he misses out on things like recess or art because of a lack of staff.“I’m here today because Elijah needs help. His teachers need help,” said Flurie. “This resolution was supposed to bring much needed solutions to a long-standing culture of resistance. Once the resolution was passed, I along with other special ed parents breathed a hopeful sigh of relief, but after all these months we have not seen these changes you have all publicly promised.”Special education is one area Knox County School leaders have been working to improve.Last year Superintendent Jon Rysewyk charged former Assistant Superintendent of Student Success Jason Myers with performing a deep dive and figuring out how to improve special education in the district.During this time, Myers formed a special education task force that made five recommendations. Last September the board approved a resolution to follow all of them and Myers promised to hire a technical assistance partner to help the district implement a five-year strategic plan.As of Thursday night, Knox County Schools still hasn’t filed a request for proposal (RFP) to hire that partner.