When it comes special education I have to be honest, I do not know much about it. Over the past few months though I have learned quite a lot of information when it comes to special education now. I have received many emails from teachers, and staff members in our districts schools special education program and I have come to realize one thing. Joyce Thompson needs to be fired. The things that I have seen and the stories I have been told are enough to make anyone mad. Many of these issues are neglect, abuse, and under staffing. Do I have your attention now? Unfortunately there are no specific state rules/requirements about the student to staff member ratios for special education students (though you may want to research that). Students' needs are outlined in their individual education plans. That would include how much time they need to be with sped staff. Staffing decisions are based on what's in students' individual education plans. And guess what district has a staffing issue for special needs children? Yup you got it LISD. These teachers have Zero support from our current director of special education. We have children that should be institutionalized due to their disabilities, but nothing is being done to help. I have never met Mrs. Thompson, but what I have gathered is that she is a very angry individual who really has no interest in helping our special needs children by not recommending the need of more staff to handle such hard cases. Mrs. Lisha Fluellen also needs to either get herself in check or leave our district. These two individuals have single handedly destroyed the special education system in our schools. With all the evidence I have received I will be filing a complaint with the TEA to have these individuals be investigated and punished for the issues they have fostered for so long. When you hear me say we need to clean house, it is individuals like this that need to be fired and never be able to work in a school system again. The issues that the teachers and staff have to face are outrageous, and I applaud them for trying to help our special needs children in our district. They need help, help from the community, help from the administrators, and help from the school board. All of the children no matter their race, or mental status deserve to have an education we the tax payers pay for. So many time we forget about our special needs children, and most of these children’s parents do not have the money to get the attention their child needs and depend on our district to supply what they cannot pay for. This statement below was written by Mrs. Thompson: “The Longview Independent School District Special Education Department provides educational services to more than 800 students throughout the school district. Approximately 125 teachers, instructional aides, speech/language pathologists and related services personnel provide instruction and related services at no cost to the parent to eligible students with disabilities. Due to the diversity of student educational needs present among Longview ISD’s students with disabilities, the district offers a comprehensive special education program designed to meet this wide range of unique needs.” Our teachers, aids and staff are struggling to try to help our special needs children, and need more staffing in order to give our special needs children the education they deserve. Please don’t do like so many of us do, and forget our special education students, they are also a big part of our districts schools. Thank You, Jason Bates