‘I fear retaliation’: Nolensville family says school district discriminated against their daughter

NOLENSVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Nolensville family is announcing their fight Williamson County Schools a modern version of David vs. Goliath. They say the district discriminated against their daughter and violated her federal right to a Free and appropriate public education.

“She turned in work that we never got back or graded,” says Brittany Goodman, mother of 13-year-old Blakely.

The Goodmans recount a year-long assessment failure that first came to light on April 18, 2024. Brittany went to her daughter’s online grading portal and did not find any grades for her 7th grade English class for the 2023-2024 school year. According to the Goodmans, after the school year ended on May 23, 2024, grades were still missing. A few days later, Brittany discovered what she believed to be arbitrary grades entered on Blakely’s behalf.

“I kept asking, ‘Why isn’t she getting the grades?’ says Brittany. “I don’t want to fabricate grades! I want the work to be returned with a grade, like all the other teachers did every year.”

Brittany described how her daughter goes to school every day, overcoming the challenges of her disability, and yet continues to work hard to complete her schoolwork.

“She deserves to be appreciated, just like all her typical peers,” says Brittany.

Blakely has Rett syndromea rare genetic disease that mainly affects girls. This is an X-chromosome mutation that occurs in about 1 in 10,000 girls worldwide. The syndrome is characterized by the omission of the main stages or regression before the age of 18 months.

Rett syndrome leads to serious impairments affecting almost all aspects of life, namely a person’s ability to speak, walk, eat and breathe easily. Blakely started losing her ability to speak and use her hands between the ages of 15 and 18 months.

“Her cognitive function is still intact, but it’s a motor disability. She may not answer you back, but she understands everything,” says Brittany. “Many of these girls (with Rett syndrome) are trapped in their own bodies.”

One way Blakely communicates is through a The device is yours which tracks her eye movements. He recognizes her gaze in words and pictures and then speaks the words aloud. The result is the creation of sentences that Blakely can use for schoolwork and everyday communication.

“Because she’s there, because she’s smart, because she’s smart, because she has likes and dislikes and emotions, just like any other 13-year-old girl, she can do a lot.”

Blakely’s abilities, despite her disability, are the reason the Goodman family filed a discrimination lawsuit against Office of Civil Rights through US Department of Education.

In the lawsuit, the family notes the lack of evaluations filed on Blakely’s behalf. They also note a secondary concern: the lack of training for the teachers who work with her.

For the past ten years, the Goodmans have paid from $4,000 to $5,000 a year for Rett syndrome experts spend two days training teachers who work with Blakely. In addition, the family paid for additional time with experts when teachers expressed other needs or questions about how to help Blakely.

The family believes that is the cost that Williamson County schools are federally required to pay.

“There are counties all over the country that pay for it (with) no problem,” Brittany says. “We moved to Williamson County, one of the wealthiest counties, and the onus is on us parents (wrong).”

Before filing the federal complaint, the Goodmans say they demanded answers from school leaders about the lack of grades.

“Then all of a sudden people from the area started coming in and (Blakely’s) chat log had things like ‘data collection,'” Brittany says. “I ask, ‘What is data collection?’ What are you collecting?’

The result was new Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that the family says cut Blakely from 7th grade math to preschool numeracy.

“They asked her questions like, ‘Do you know what 1 to 33 is?’ Why are we asking her such intellectually offensive questions,” Brittany asked. “It’s a child writing a sentence about The Diary of Anne Frank or telling their teacher about themselves in sentence form.”

A lack of consistency within an IEP is something the Tennessee Disability Coalition says is all too common.

“We hear from parents all the time that they’re getting generic IEPs that don’t match the IEP for assessments with the wrong child’s name, obviously copied and pasted from another IEP, and inadequate assessments,” says Jeff Strand, director of public policy at the Disability Coalition Tennessee (TDC).

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Strand notes that 115,000 children have IEPs in Tennessee public schools. This means that 14% of Tennessee children are enrolled in a special education program.

In the last one Tennessee Educator Survey Published annually by the Tennessee Department of Education, 33% of teachers said they do not receive enough training to work with children with disabilities. 43% said they don’t get enough support from schools to do their jobs well.

TDC recently gave the state a “D” grade on its annual report card for a lack of training and education for special education teachers.

“It takes a lot to understand how to work with a child with Rett syndrome,” says Strand. “So the very simple, straightforward solution is to help people learn how to work with this child.”

In October, during a formal IEP meeting with the family, district official William Turney said, “We have denied tuition virtually across the board because we believe that Williamson County’s own schools can provide the instruction that Rhett University has typically provided in the past.”

The denial of special education was the final straw in the family’s decision to file a federal discrimination complaint. The family claims the district discriminated against Blakely on the grounds that it violated her right to a free and adequate public education.

The the text of the law states that public schools must provide “supportive facilities and related services free of charge.” They need to be offered “regardless of the severity of their disability”.

“I’m angry because the struggle we have every day is pretty hard,” Brittany says. “Why the posturing here? Why are we forced to feel less than? Why is there gas lighting?’

When asked what she fears most about the process, Brittany said:

“I’m afraid to even speak for not only Blakely, but families across the county. I fear retaliation from the larger system. And if this is happening to us with 10 years of success, what is happening to these other families who ask for resources and are just denied over and over and over again? These children are left without need.”