Origin
Tri-County originated from a single district special education entity initiated by Independence School District in 1971 – 4 years before the federal mandate requiring special education was enacted by congress. Max Heim was the #446 Superintendent at the time and recognized public education’s responsibilities to students with special needs. In 1972, Cherryvale, Neodesha, and Fredonia joined with Independence serving as the sponsoring district. In 1973, Parsons became a member and 2 years later, Caney joined. On July 1, 1976, Tri-County Special Education Cooperative/Interlocal No. 607 became a separate entity with its own bylaws and Board of Education. Coffeyville was the last district to join Tri-County in 1977.
Tri-County has been served by six directors since its inception – Ray Findley (1972-1977); Clarence Williams (1977-1981); Curtis Schmitz (1981-2002); Kevin Shepard (2002-2011); Julie Bruington (2011-2019); Emily McCambridge (2019- current).
Law
The Education for All Handicapped Students Act was mandated in 1975, primarily due to the fact that out of 8 million known children with disabilities, one million were excluded from the public schools and only half of those who had access were receiving an appropriate education. Although some special education services were in place at the time this law was passed, the mandate guaranteed a basic floor of opportunity for all disabled children to receive an appropriate public education and it led to significant expansions of new programs and services throughout the country.
The law, now renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), has undergone several revisions over the years. Its most recent revision, IDEA – 2004, addressed issues stemming in the areas of discipline, student transition, due process, early childhood services, LRE, and the issue of highly qualified providers as it pertains to special educators.
Services
Initially, Tri-County began with a director, a secretary, and a few instructors operating out of the old St. Andrews Catholic Church with self-contained special education services for the more severely disabled children from these communities. In 1977, Tri-County moved to the old Rodrick Funeral Home at 220 E. Chestnut, and in 2018 moved to 2207 N. 10th in Independence.
Currently, Tri-County provides special education services to approximately 1,473 students between the ages of 3-21. There are 13 separate categories of disability recognized under the current federal law – Autism, Deaf-Blindness, Deafness, Emotional Disturbance, Intellectual Disability, Specific Learning Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Speech or Language Disability, Traumatic Brain Injury, Visual Impairment and Developmental Delay.
Tri-County runs The Tri-County Education Center, which has special programs for students with significant needs, including SEK Academy, a day treatment program in collaboration with Four County Mental Health. The Tri-County Education Center staff are highly trained in the area of behavior, mental health and trauma informed practices.
In addition, Kansas has its own state mandate for Gifted services. (Gifted is not a federally
mandated category.) Tri-County partners with Southeast Kansas Service Center, also known as Greenbush, to serve our Birth to 3 population, Gifted, Deaf and Visual Impairments. We also contract with Greenbush for Parsons to have access to Project Alternative.
Tri-County employs licensed special education teachers, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, adaptive PE teacher, school psychologists, nurse, technology facilitator, 4 coordinators, a day school principal, an assistant director and director. Our non-licensed staff are attendant cares, paraprofessionals, and data clerks.
Tri-County supplies Transportation services for students traveling outside their home district and Assistive Technology to assist with the medically fragile, speech, and orthopedically impaired students.
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