MCS provides individual educational programs for students meeting the state criteria for special education. Resource classes and speech services are located in all schools. Comprehensive Development classes are located at Bellwood-Bowdoin, Scales Elementary and Northfield Elementary.
Additional staff include: school psychologists, vision teacher, deaf educator, occupational therapist and physical therapist. Other specialists are contracted as needed.

All students are served in the least restrictive environment and are served based on their individual needs.

Students with special needs may begin receiving services from MCS on their 3rd birthday. Children from birth to three, with special needs, may be served through Tennessee Early Intervention Services. All special education services are provided at no charge.

Assistant principals at each school are responsible for special education. Please contact your child’s teacher or assistant principal if you believe your child may benefit from special education.

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Procedural Safeguards of Children with Disabilities and Parent Responsibilities

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides your child with certain procedural safeguards in regard to obtaining and continuing special education services. Many of those procedural safeguards are similar to those your child has had with the early intervention system (IDEA-Part C).

In brief, your child’s procedural safeguards under IDEA-Part B are:

• WRITTEN CONSENT
  - You must give your written consent before your child is evaluated and/or placed in special education for the first time
• WRITTEN NOTICE
  - You must be notified in writing before the school system evaluates your child and/or meets to develop your child’s Individualized Education Program.
• EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION
  - If you believe that your child has special needs or a disability, you have the procedural safeguard to have your child screened, and, then, if needed, fully evaluated at no cost to you. If your child is eligible for special education services, that area of disability will be evaluated every three years. This service will be provided, at no cost to you, to see if your child continues to meet the criteria for eligibility. This evaluation can occur more often than three years, if significant changes in development or behavior are noted.
• REVIEW ALL SCHOOL RECORDS
  - Your child’s records are confidential. They may only be reviewed by you and other authorized employees of the school district, unless you give your written permission.
• LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
  - Children with disabilities are to be educated in an educational setting with non-disabled children to the maximum extent appropriate.
• DUE PROCESS
  - If you and the school district cannot agree on the evaluation, the identification, the placement, or the provision of a free and appropriate public education for your child, both you and the school system have the procedural safeguard to request a hearing to resolve this difference of opinion.

**Please contact the school system for a full explanation of your child’s educational procedural safeguards and the procedural safeguards to you as a parent or guardian. A complete copy of these procedural safeguards can be requested at any time from our office and will be given to you, and explained, at your child’s IEP-Team meeting.

Procedural Safeguards

Procedural Safeguards - En Español

Tennessee Department of Education Special Education Legal Information

Tennessee Department of Special Education Page