Special Ed Changes: Will We Get A Vote?

Did you see last Friday's edition of the Messenger?  Hopkins County is about to get a new Director of Special Education.  This change will greatly affect the learning path of many kids in our county. 

As parents, we can only hope the board is looking to hire an experienced, knowledgeable individual with an extensive background in Special Education.  Extensive does not mean a teacher with several years teaching experience.  Extensive means someone who knows the IDEA regulations frontwards and backwards in addition to having a number of years directly involved in special education.  If you're curious, my printed copy of the IDEA regulations is 58 pages long.  Those 58 pages dictate the who/what/when/where/why/how of special education in our state.  In my opinion, the new Director should be able to accurately site the laws from memory.  And his/her resume should include something that looks like "x years in Special Education Administration".  And the "x" should be greater than 10.  This is not a "learn as you go" kind of job.  You can checkout the actual job listing here.

I believe the Board of Ed conducted a survey last spring as they prepared to hire a new principal at Browning Springs Middle School, please correct me if I'm wrong.  Now, obviously there are many more students and families affected by special education and that means many more opinions to be heard.  So, will we get the chance to voice our opinion?  I'm going to go out on a limb and say no, we probably won't be consulted.  But, wouldn't it be nice to know our children matter, too?