HAMILTON COUNTY, Tennessee – For the second year in a row, the Tennessee Disability Coalition gave the state a failing grade.

The coalition uses 9 categories to arrive at a final score. The state received a passing grade in only four of those categories.

On Thursday we spoke with officials about how they hope to improve.

The Tennessee Disability Coalition’s scorecard evaluates the state’s support for people with disabilities in various sectors.

They looked at these specific areas:

• Family care support: F
• Access to care: F
• Ability of people with disabilities to access affordable housing: F
• Access to mental health support: D-
• Aging: C+
• Transport: C-
• Employment: C-
• Access to justice: C-
• Education: D.

Jeff Strand is the Director of Private Policy for the Tennessee Disability Coalition.

He says his main goal is to try to improve education, which received a D grade.

We recently talked to you about A Hamilton County mother is pushing for the school board to provide more accommodations for her son, who has a rare genetic disease.

Her son was facing suspension due to the unexcused absences he received while leaving school for therapy. You can read more of that story here.

“We’ve seen some kind of status quo special education for decades in this state, and we’ve seen some recent investments, but we’ve also seen some kind of regressive policies that really punish disability in the school setting,” Strand says. . “So we would like to see the General Assembly and our state department work to facilitate access to services, make those services more effective and better train our teachers. Get more teachers, paraprofessionals and school psychologists, for that matter “We just need more of everything. We need to do it better.”

Strand says he believes the coalition is making progress with Tennessee lawmakers, as 10 of the 27 proposed policies have been addressed.

According to the CDC, nearly 2 million Tennesseans experience some type of disability.