NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – One-third of Tennessee residents live with a disabilityAccording to the CDC. However, Tennessee is failing to “capture the level of urgency needed to meet the present moment,” according to the Tennessee Disability Coalition’s (TDC) annual Disability Scorecard.

The TDC gave the state a “D” overall grade in its annual report. It listed nine disability priority areas for 2024, including employment, aging and education.

The state received three failing grades for access to care, support for caregivers and housing.

Regarding access to care, the Tennessee Medicaid program (TennCare) only covers 75% of the true cost of hospital care, contributing to 60% of Tennessee hospitals operating at a loss and 45% at risk of closing.

When it comes to family care support, Tennessee ranks 45th nationally in availability of home health care workers, with just 23 workers per 1,000 residents.

Amid the housing crisis, the report finds that no county in Tennessee allows people with disabilities to buy homes. This number is down from just five counties in 2023 and 15 in 2022.

The state earned a D grade for education, which became a TDC legislative priority in 2025.

“There are 115,000 children in our public schools who are on an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which means they are enrolled in a special education program. That’s 14 percent of our entire student population,” said Jeff Strand, TDC’s director of public policy.

“There are not enough specialist teachers. There aren’t enough support specialists, like school psychologists, counselors, that sort of thing. There aren’t enough paraprofessionals to support special education classes,” says Strand.

In the most recent Tennessee Teacher Survey released annually by the Tennessee Department of Education, 33 percent of teachers said they did not receive enough training to work with children with disabilities. 43% said they did not receive enough support from schools to do their job well.

“For kids with more unique disabilities or higher needs, our teachers are not prepared, and they say they are not prepared,” Strand says.

To read the full scorecard, click here.

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