Hamilton County Schools identified as disproportionately disciplining African-American students with disabilities

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) – The Tennessee Department of Education identified Hamilton County Schools for disproportionately disciplining African-American students with disabilities.

They are one of 25 school districts across the state that were identified based on data from the last three school years.

Several school systems appealed.

After the appeal process, two were found not significantly disproportionate.

Hamilton County did not appeal.

Hamilton County School officials said they have been working to improve with more training and partnerships.

They’re also working to redesign code of conduct for the entire district.

Chief Equity Officer Marsha Drake said current numbers from the first semester of this year school show suspension rates with African-American students with disabilities are going down.

“I attribute that to all the work that we have done through focusing on positive school-wide behavior,” Drake said. “A plethora of PD (professional development) that we have provided our teachers and our other school staff members that we have and I that, that has benefited us.”

“Professional development is key. Dr. Johnson has really invested into professional development for this year Dr. Drake has done a wonderful job pulling those PDs together and those different pieces from different departments and just giving that overall professional development, and we’re looking at hitting 40% of our staff this summer which is, that is a large number of staff to provide professional development for, but that’s our goal for this summer and as the school year rolls out we’re looking to hit 100%,” Exceptional Education Director Garfield Adams said.

The state is required to review this data because of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004.

Federal law requires the districts identified to redirect 15 percent of their IDEA funds to address the problems.