General Info:
About Cooperative The Little Tennessee Valley Educational Cooperative ( LTVEC ) is a chartered non-profit organization that provides services to over ten member and non-member school systems. It was created in 1971. The member school systems are Alcoa City, Athens City, Lenoir City, Loudon County, Monroe County and Sweetwater City Schools. LTVEC's Board of Directors is comprised of the Superintendent and a school board member from each of the member school systems and a county commissioner from the counties in which the school systems are located. The mission of LTVEC is to promote the enhancement of educational services for the region through cooperative interaction without disrupting individual school system autonomy. To this end, LTVEC frequently promotes opportunities for school systems that do not always involve LTVEC directly. LTVEC develops grants, pilots special programs, evaluates ongoing activities and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas between school systems. LTVEC Programs LTVEC provides highly skilled professionals to deliver supplemental services to existing special education programs within the school systems. Currently, LTVEC provides Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Pathology, and School Psychology. It operates a Birth-to-Three program, Assitive Technology Center, BEST Cooperative Purchasing program. It also administers the Tennessee Internship Consortium in School Psychology ( TIC ) ( APA Accredited ) activities on behalf of its Board of Directors and is the fiscial agent of the Tennessee Association for Assistive Technology ( TAAT ). The cooperative has developed programs in positive behavior support and in the support of the Full Service Schools concept. In addition, it has been involved in writing grants for area programs and conducting inservices and promoting the publication of educational related materials. The Birth-to-Three Program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays, and their families, is operated by LTVEC. It has program sites in Lenoir City, Madisonville, and Maryville. The program was started as a result of receiving a national demonstration grant in 1980. Local and state support have enabled Birth-to-Three to continue to the present. This nationally acclaimed model program has stimulated new programs within the region such as the Lenoir City Pre-School, the Loudon County Parenting program, and parenting classes in Monroe County. Assistive Technology Center A focus of the Assistive Technology Center is to assess children in their own school environment, as this environment is the most relevant to the child's educational life. The Center also coordinates the pooling of AT equipment and professional staff, and helps provide training to appropriate staff within the participating school districts. Technical assistance in such areas as grant writing, account management, gifted education, computer usage, alternative education, seriously emotionally disturbed students programming and special education laws are just a few of the other areas in which LTVEC has provided assistance in the region. The limits as to how many other things LTVEC can do to assist area school systems is determined by the creativity of the region and the willingness to cooperate across system boundaries. LTVEC's strength lies in its ability to facilitate cooperation without compromising individual school system autonomy. The services it can provide the region are limited only by the creativity of its educational leaders. The future looks bright for our children.