Video: School District Appealing Department of Education Findings

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) -The Tupelo Public School District is appealing results of an investigation by the Mississippi Department of Education concerning the needs of a student with multiple disabilities.

The mother of a 7 year old former Lawhon Elementary student claimed the district did not provide appropriate services to meet her son’s needs.

Now, the MDE is asking the district to create a new plan to meet the student’s needs.

However, TPSD Superintendent Gearl Loden says the district feels the MDE investigation was flawed. Dr Loden says the district is very limited in what it can say about the student due to privacy laws.

“Our biggest concerns with the investigation is not the child , we are going to take care of the child, our special education director is working on the plan MDE asked us to work on but we have some major concerns on how the investigation was handled by MDE. It appears to us that people were sent to investigate have never been administrators in our state, never been special education supervisors.”
Loden points out that parental complaints are usually handled and resolved through mediation.However, in this case, the child’s guardian did not opt for mediation, but went straight to the MDE.