As the avid reader may be aware, I am a huge college basketball fan. My team, the proud University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, made big strides this year, improving from 2 conference wins to 9 this year. But alas, those nine are not going to be enough to get us to the Big Dance, aka the NCAA Tournament, aka March Madness. However, March Madness is not resigned to just basketball – Cordell Hull has an annual March Madness period as well! And our bills have us in the big dance.

Calendars are starting to close on the Senate side, bills are starting to reach their end-points and our elected officials are beginning to get real cranky. But, that also means that if we hang in there a few more weeks, we’ll see a real spring. And our spring looks like the passage of our bills and the (hopefully positive) resolution of bills that give us heartburn.

It's March already and this month is a big one for our GRASSROOTS and the disability community. Our bills are gonna be hot out of the gate this week (and month), so we’ll need tons and tons of support to gather some momentum and clear these first hurdles. So check out this week’s updates on ways to plug in, and let’s do our GRASSROOTS thing!

Since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, students with disabilities have experienced a dramatic increase in the quality of their educational experience in public schools. However, a stubborn, persistent gap remains, in part due to the unrealized promise of IDEA for students with behavioral health needs. In Tennessee, this disparity for students with behavior needs, and its underlying causes, is often misunderstood or entirely unacknowledged. 

So, that wasn’t so bad – the supposed “worst week of the year” was just sort of a regular one (if not a tad busy). Maybe that is in part because a lot of top priority bills are still waiting their turns to hit their respective calendars. Or maybe it’s because Cordell Hull is thawing out from its cold war/middle school ethos (lol). But if all our elected official friends are still writing mean things in their slam books and feeling angsty, they’re gonna feel much better by Wednesday, because that is DISABILITY DAY ON THE HILL!!!

This year we have another chance to support the establishment of a new Department of Aging and Disability.  Governor Lee has recognized the importance of putting “aging” in a cabinet- level department and coordinating and integrating services for people with disabilities.  The proposal merges the Commission on Aging and Disability and the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities into a new Department.  A Department that will be able to do more strategic planning and coordination of services across age and disabilities.  We