Tennessee Disability Coalition

Special Education: Behavior Supports, Policies, and Practices in Tennessee Schools.

As schools switch to inclusive education, the needs of students with behavior issues, whether diagnosed with a disability or not, are being ignored. Just as IDEA transformed education for children with disabilities, we can do the same for students with behavior needs in Tennessee.

What causes these issues in Tennessee Schools?
Root Cause Number 1: Shortages and turnover of Special Education Teachers.
Root Cause Number 2: General and special education teachers are under-prepared and under-resourced to work with students with behavior needs.
Root Cause Number 3: Students with behavior needs face a lack of access to effective school-based supports and therapies.
Root Cause Number 4: State level and school level policy trends are punitive and exclusionary rather than supportive to students with behavior needs.

What does this look like in Tennessee Schools?
Tennessee schools direct formal and informal methods of exclusionary discipline toward students with disabilities at disproportionate rates.
Tennessee schools fail to properly construct and implement of Behavior Intervention Plans and Functional Behavioral Assessments. 
Tennessee has failed to consistently solicit and publish reporting on the use of restraint and seclusion against students with disabilities, as required by law.
In the last year of comparable data, Tennessee students graduated at a rate of 88.7%, while students 
with “emotional disturbance” 
IEP’s graduated at a rate of 38.7%.