Director Exceptional Education

Hamilton County Schools•Chattanooga, TN

About The Position

Hamilton County Schools, located in Chattanooga, TN, is working to ensure that all students thrive and experience a future without limits. We are committed to excellence for every student and are seeking outstanding leaders, teachers, support staff, and district employees who desire to make a difference in the lives of students. With nearly 75 schools, we are confident that you can find your place in Hamilton County. Learn more about working for Hamilton County Schools at careers.hcde.org and get to know us and our strategic plan, Opportunity 2030. Hamilton County Schools believes that all children will thrive and experience a future without limits. In the opportunity and access division, we provide opportunities and access to make sure all students thrive, especially those in underserved populations or subgroups. The K-12 Director of Exceptional Education must be a bold, visionary leader. This leader will be tasked with accelerating achievement for students with exceptionalities and to design an asset based strategy as a key driver to accelerate learning. The leader will be tasked with designing learning structures that serve children and provide opportunities to access programs. Currently, 14% of our students with disabilities are on track or at mastery level according to TNReady. The essential function of this role is to build a robust, asset based, learning and professional development pathway that results in systemic change for Hamilton County and academic results for students. The leader will serve as a change agent for leadership and must hold high expectations for students. The leader must have the ability to lead the vision and manage the process.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Exceptional Education required. Preferred Master’s degree or higher in Exceptional Education
Minimum of five (5) years successful work experience working with Exceptional Education or ENL population
Experience in the design and implementation of various methods or procedures required to supervise classroom instruction; knowledge of federal, state, and local laws, rules, regulations, policies and procedures relating to students with disabilities.
Knowledge of complaint resolution procedures used to settle OCR complaints, State Department of Education complaints, and due process hearings; or, any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience which provides the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities for this position.
Demonstrate excellent verbal and written communication skills to deal effectively with students, educators, parents, and community members.
Demonstrate excellent planning, organizational, problem-solving, decision-making, and time management skills.
Must be able to operate a motor vehicle and maintain a valid, state-issued driver's license.

Nice To Haves

Preferred Master’s degree or higher in Exceptional Education

Responsibilities

Establish a new vision and theory of action for the Exceptional Education department around 4 major areas - Learning, Behavior, Compliance, and Data Systems for Access and Opportunity for our children in exceptional education
Create work streams for compliance that will best support schools through the Exceptional Education department; insure quick response time for support
Develop an organizational structure to align the work of learning, behavior, diagnostics, and compliance for students within special populations
Create a Professional Learning pipeline for teachers to access the materials and training for serving our students; a retention strategy
Develop a staffing formula that supports student access to services and opportunities
Consistently evaluate the effectiveness of programming and respond when children are not accessing opportunities
Use data as a driver to eliminate barriers to access for all students; quickly respond when students are not learning
Work to create a dashboard for interpreting data that will help identify results for students within a special population
Work with General Education leaders to establish a learning, compliance and behavior response strategy
Create efficient and effective work streams for teachers to access supports and remove barriers to accessing services
Align programs for behavioral support programs for students to decrease expulsions and suspensions especially for subgroups
Establish a community forward plan to support, train, and inform parents to create a customer-focused climate
Create a leadership team for input, order, climate and culture to include leaders, teachers, and community partners
Manage and grow the talent within the organization
Implement High Quality Curriculum resources and supports for all teachers of students within special populations
Coordinate with learning and leadership team on standards and curricular supports as well as training opportunities
Establish a teacher professional development plan to support areas of the theory of action and areas defined by the action plan
Maintains confidentiality and adhere to the Teacher Code of Ethics as defined by Tennessee Law
Must be a problem solver and provide timely response and solutions for kids
Must be willing to work across areas with multiple departments
Must be able to operate a motor vehicle and maintain a valid, state-issued driver's license.