Update on TIPS and Early Intervention Changes in TN- More Help Needed

Dear Concerned Friends,

Because of your efforts, Nashville has "reconsidered" it's decision to fire all of the TIPS full-time teachers. Commissioner Seivers met with TIPS Regional Lead Teachers on April 9th and heard their concerns. Representative Doug Overbey was there. So was Rick Nicholson from Finance Ways & Means Committee, TEA, and a representative from the Governor's office. About 2 weeks later, the RLTs, state secretaries and business manager got letters saying that they would have jobs in the "new" program. Thank you for making the calls, e-mails, etc. We're glad Commissioner Seivers changed her mind about the RLTs.

We don't know what the RLTs will be doing, though, because they may be assigned different job duties. We contacted Don Thompson and asked him if everyone was being kept. He said that TIPS contracts for some staff through the Center on Deafness at UT. These people may get to keep their jobs until the end of September, but they don't know that for sure. When we asked about the numbers of people involved, he said there are 3 RLTs, 2 computer people and 7.5 secretaries currently employed who are paid by UT but work for TIPS. Don Thompson still has a RIF letter, too.

Nashville is still planning on taking away the "special school" title from TIPS School, but they are moving the TIPS program under the Tennessee School for the Blind so the TIPS teachers can still be teachers. Posted on this site (in the next comment) is a letter written by Sarah Willis. She is the lady who started TEIS, helped to get TIPS set up as a special school and worked very hard to get Tennessee's early intervention program going well. She retired several years ago and moved to Washington to work for the US Office of Special Education Programs. Ms. Willis KNOWS Tennessee's program, and she knows federal law. In her letter, she tells Commissioner Seivers that our state needs to put all of this change on hold and fix the problems within the current system, not try to reinvent the airplane while it is flying. As a parent with a child in our state's program, I encourage you to let your legislators know these things:

1) you appreciate their help in saving the jobs of TIPS RLTs
2) our state needs to stop trying to implement a new program and just fix the problems in the current program
3) give people who KNOW early intervention a chance to help plan the future.

Additional Info. for Parents in Blount or Sevier Counties

If you are a parent in BLOUNT or SEVIER COUNTIES please vist Senator Raymond Finney's website blog as well and post your letters there too.

Senator Raymond Finney has a website blog and one of our TIPS families has already posted a letter there. The more members of the General Assembly who come onboard to support TIPS, the bigger the chance that TIPS School will be saved. Dr. Finney's website is: http://www.finneyblog.com/blogeducation.html

TIPS and TEIS Child Count

Please click on image to enlarge.

Representative Contact Information

Please click on table below to enlarge. The format for all email addresses is as follows: rep.firstname.lastname@legislature.state.tn.us
Example: rep.joe.armstrong@legislature.state.tn.us

Mailing Addresses:
LP is defined as Legislative Plaza, Nashville, TN 37243
WMB is defined as War Memorial Building, Nashville, TN 37243

Senator Contact Information

Please click on table below to enlarge. The format for all email addresses is as follows:
sen.firstname.lastname@legislature.state.tn.us.
Example: sen.jamie.woodson@legislature.state.tn.us
Example: lt.gov.ron.ramsey@legislature.state.tn.us


Mailing Addresses:
LP is defined as Legislative Plaza, Nashville, TN 37243
WMB is defined as War Memorial Building, Nashville, TN 37243

Sample Letters

Please post any letters you've sent to legislators, Dept. of Ed, etc. in support of TIPS and the RLTs. The letters posted here can serve as a resource for other parents as they write their own letter. Be sure to send your letter to several key decision makers/influencial people by copying the letter and cc -ing those people in the letter. The more legislators and key people that get letters from parents the better.

Thanks so much!

Education Com. & Dept. of Ed. Contacts

CONTACTING KEY DECISION MAKERS- Legislators & Dept. of Ed. contacts

Listed below are some key Education Committee Legislators and Dept. of Education decision makers. PLEASE write your legislators, the Governor, etc. and let them know your concerns regarding the proposed reorganization of early intervention--- specifically the potential demise of TIPS due to the removal of TIPS Regional Lead Teachers.

Be sure to read through the fact sheets on other areas of the blog so you can explain all the various points of concern with the new plan. There are several MAJOR areas of CONCERN.

Also, depending on who you write your letter to, be sure to cc (copy) other important decision makers, legislators, etc. as well. The more people who get your letter the better. The more people who are made aware of the situation and the more constituents they hear from the better.

*****Senator Jamie Woodson (Chair of the Education Committee in the Senate) and Senator Tim Burchett are aware of the situation. You may want to cc them on your letter.
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Some possible people to send your letter to or CC:
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1. your legislators
2. Senator Jamie Woodson (Chair, Senate Education Committee)
3. Rep. Les Winingham (Chair, House of Rep. Education Committee)
4. Governor Phil Bredesen-Governor’s Office, Tennessee State CapitalNashville, Tennessee 37243-0001
5. Education Commissioner Lana Seviers (Lana.Seviers@state.tn.us), (615) 741-2731
6. Deputy Commissioner Timothy Webb (Tim.Webb@state.tn.us), (615) 532-4983
7. Assistant Commissioner Joseph Fisher (Joe.Fisher@state.tn.us), – (615) 741-3340
8. Office of Early Childhood Services Director Jamie Kilpatrick (Jamie.Kilpatrick@state.tn.us), – (615) 741-3537
9. Mary Rolando (Mary.Rolando@state.tn.us).


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Education Committee
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House of Representatives
NAME, PHONE, COUNTY, # of TIPS Children Served
********************************************************************
D – Les Winningham – Huntsville – Chair
615-741-6852 Work
Scott- 24 children,Anderson-40, Clay-2, Jackson-7, Pickett-2

D – Tommie Brown – Chattanooga – Vice Chair
615-741-4374 Work, 615-253-0203 Fax
Hamilton-148

D – Dennis Ferguson – Midtown
615-741-7658 Work, 615-253-0163 Fax
Roane -32, Loudon- 36

D – Ulysses Jones – Memphis
615-741-4575 Work, 615-741-7664 Fax
Shelby-796

D – Mark L Maddox – Dresden
615-741-7847 Work, 615-253-0293 Fax
Weakley-9, Carroll-9

R – Richard Montgomery – Sevierville
615-741-5981 Work, 615-253-0303 Fax
Sevier-39

R – Dennis Roach - Rutledge
615-741-2534 Work, 615-532-8221 Fax
Grainger-11, Claiborne-2, Jefferson-30

D – Nathan Vaughn – Kingsport
615-741-6867 Work
Sullivan-71

R – Kent Williams – Elizabethton
615-741-7450 Work,615-253-0310 Fax
Carter-19
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SENATE
NAME, PHONE, COUNTY, # of TIPS Children Served
*********************************************************
R – Jamie Woodson – Knoxville – Chair****
615-741-1648 Work, 615-253-0270 Fax
Knox-286

R – Dewayne Bunch – Cleveland
615-741-3730 Work,615-253-0243 Fax
Bradley-54, McMinn-38, Meigs-6, Polk-3

R – Rusty Crowe – Johnson City
615-741-2468 Work
Washington-27, Carter-19

D – Ward Crutchfield – Chattanooga
615-741-6682 Work, 615-741-2886 Fax
Hamilton-148, Bradley

D – Joe Hayes – Nashville
615-741-6679 Work, 615-741-2533 Fax
Davidson-166

D – Doug Henry – Nashville
615-741-3291 Work, 615-741-2380 Fax
Davidson-166

D – Rosalind Kurita – Clarksville
615-741-2374 Work, 615-741-3403 Fax
Cheatham-5, Houston-3, Montgomery-58

R – Randy McNally – Oak Ridge
615-741-6806 Work
Anderson-40, Loudon-36, Monroe -23, Knox-286

R – Bo Watson – Hixson
615-741-3227 Work, 615-741-4917 Fax
Hamilton-148

Help TIPS Facts/ Talking Points

The Tennessee Early Intervention System (TEIS) is in trouble financially.

1. Tennessee Infant Parent Services School (TIPS) is a part of the Tennessee’s Early Intervention System.
2. TIPS School’s budget needs have grown because TIPS School serves a large, growing number of families whose children have disabilities.
3. Last year, TIPS School served more than 3,750 families in our state who have children under three with disabilities. The "per child cost" that TIPS spent serving these children was under $2,500 each.

Commissioner Seivers, Department of Education, asked the Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination to study all state agencies serving these children and develop a consolidation plan.
A draft plan was released on Wednesday, March 7. The troubling parts of this plan are:

• Abolish Tennessee Infant Parent Services as a State Special School. TIPS School has 35 highly qualified full-time teachers who are early childhood special education experts. Within this group of teachers are experts in deaf education, autism, vision, mobility, speech pathology, early childhood special ed., and audiology. These teachers serve families and they recruit, train, assign and supervise 600 part-time TIPS teachers who make weekly home visits to these families.
• Assign program quality assurance in each district to only one person. This means that no supervision will occur; no lesson plan review will occur; no ongoing coaching and supporting will occur and questions about how to handle difficult situations will be ignored or put on hold—QUALITY SERVICE TO FAMILIES WILL DECLINE.
• Use the money saved from cutting the positions of early childhood special educators and serve 1200 children who are between the age of 3-4 who no longer are considered disabled. What this means is that quality services for children with severe disabilities are being cut so the State can serve children without disabilities.

Persons who are evaluating this draft plan are:

• Commissioner Lana Seivers ( Lana.Seivers@state.tn.us)
• Deputy Commissioner Timothy Webb (Tim.Webb@state.tn.us)
• Assistant Commissioner Joseph Fisher (Joe.Fisher@state.tn.us)
• Office of Early Childhood Services Director Jamie Kilpatrick (Jamie.Kilpatrick@state.tn.us)
• Mary Rolando (Mary.Rolando@state.tn.us).

Phone numbers for some of these people are:

• Commissioner Seviers – (615) 741-2731
• Deputy Commissioner Webb – (615) 532-4983
• Assistant Commissioner Fisher– (615) 741-3340
• OECS Director Jamie Kilpatrick – (615) 741-3537

If this concerns you, please let your legislators know.

Introduction to Help TIPS Blog

This blog was created by parents of a child in TIPS so that other interested TIPS parents can communicate about the proposed changes to TIPS. Hopefully this blog will allow parents to better understand how the proposed changes would negatively impact TIPS. It was also started to serve as a resource for parents to work together to educate and lobby to legislators and other "powers that be" about the critical role the Regional Lead Teacher's play in providing quality direct services to birth -3 children with special needs through the TIPS School.

Feel free to post your own thoughts, concerns, questions. More information about the proposed changes to TIPS will be added soon. Also, we hope to add legislative contact information and "Save TIPS fact sheets"- to help guide interested parents in composing their own letters to legislators, etc. Thanks for your support of TIPS and the Regional Lead Teachers and Parent Advisors that directly serve our children.