Members of the Knox County Schools Board of Education unanimously voted to approve board chair Betsy Henderson’s resolution to follow all five recommendations made by the Knox County Schools (KCS) special education task force.The task force made recommendations last month to address what it felt are concerning cultural problems with special education in the district. Henderson proposed a resolution to approve the recommendations last week.“I enthusiastically support and encourage passage of (Chair) Henderson’s resolution to make Knox County Schools a model district for excellence and special education, and implement the task force’s recommendations,” said task force member Cortney Piper. “Reimagining Knox County Schools’ special education is the right thing to do and it’s the legal thing to do. It’s hard work and there’s no question about that. Consider me and hundreds of other special education parents your partners in this hard work.”

Cary Byrge began noticing something frustrating towards the end of her son’s second-grade year in school.Byrge’s son was supposed to receive regular speech therapy through Knox County Schools, but that assistance became less reliable.“The first two years went great. Then all of a sudden, towards the end of second grade, he began to receive speech services less and less and less and I would call, and I would email, and we would have meetings and we would put a band aid on it for the end of the year and then say they would try to do better next year. But it never got any better, it actually got a lot worse,” said Byrge.That was especially true when her son entered the sixth-grade.