About Dan Schlafer, Ed.S., CMAA
Retired AD Committee Chair: Dan Schlafer, Ed.S., CMAA
Dan Schlafer has been a professional educator, coach and administrator since 1974. He graduated from Carson-Newman University in 1974, earned a Master of Science degree in 1987 from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville and an Educational Specialist degree in 1995 from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.
Dan was asked to join the Hamilton County School System in Chattanooga, Tennessee to support their Central Office Leadership Team as their Federal Programs Coordinator. He provided consultation guidance for 53 Title I schools, as well as guidance on all related Federal issues.
He served as the Federal Programs Director for the Cumberland County, Tennessee School System, where he managed Title Programs and almost three million dollars in Federal money, he has taught every grade level from Kindergarten through twelfth grade. Dan has taught and coached in Tennessee’s public schools and in two private parochial schools. A former Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach, his special education experience includes eight years of teaching and coaching at Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was inducted into the TSD Alumni Association’s Athletic Hall of Fame in October 2018.
During his coaching career, Dan earned Coach of the Year honors thirteen times. He was named the National Deaf Prep Football Coach of the Year in 1980 by THE DEAF AMERICAN MAGAZINE. His football teams posted one hundred victories (which included several conference and district championships) and two state quarterfinalists in the public/private school arena. He coached two deaf national champion runner-up teams at TSD and is a National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) Certified Master Athletic Administrator. Additionally, Dan is active in the Tennessee Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (TIAAA), a member of their Board of Directors, and is certified to teach professional development leadership training courses for athletic administrators.
Dan has made presentations at conferences across the country on Title VI and Title IX compliance, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act and Americans with Disabilities Act/Section 504 compliance. He has done consulting work with local boards of education as well.