Director of the Office of Special Education Programs
U.S. Department of Education
Dr. Kenneth Warlick currently serves as Director of the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. Previously, Dr. Warlick served as Associate Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education (1991 to 1998), first heading the Office of Special Instructional Service and subsequently the Office of Learning Programs Development. During his tenure, Dr. Warlick designed a plan to improve relations between the State education department and various child-parent advocacy groups, helped lead an effort to completely revise the special education code to clearly distinguish between best practices and legal mandates, and helped implement the Kentucky Education Reform Act, a major legislative package intended to improve the quality of Kentucky schools. From 1998 to his January 2000 appointment to the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Warlick directed the Inclusive Large Scale Standards and Assessment Group within the University of Kentucky's Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute. In that position, he led work on alternate assessments for special needs populations and helped develop alternate assessment principles in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Tennessee. Dr. Warlick's earlier work experience includes supervising a dropout prevention program in New Bern, NC, serving as an assistant principal and later local director of special education in Durham, NC, and serving as associate superintendent in Warren County, NC. Dr. Warlick holds doctoral, master's, and bachelor's degrees in education.