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If you are the parent of a child with a disability, you
represent your child's interests. You need to stay informed
about changes to the law that may affect your child. If you are
a teacher or special education service provider, the
reauthorized law is likely to affect you and your job.
IDEA: Improving Educational Results for Children with
Disabilities Act
On March 19, 2003, the Committee on Education and the Workforce
of the U. S. House of Representatives published a proposed bill
to reauthorize IDEA.
The
"Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act"
proposes to improve educational results for children with
disabilities by making significant changes to the IDEA.
Proposed
changes include:
-
Increase
accountability and improved results; align IDEA with NCLB
-
Reduce
paperwork burden
-
Allow 3
year IEPs if parent and district agree
-
Eliminate
benchmarks and short term objectives from IEPs
-
Allow IEP
to be amended without convening entire IEP team if parent and
district agree
-
Improve
early intervention
-
Reduce
overidentification / misidentification of nondisabled
children, including minority youth
-
Eliminate
"IQ-discrepancy" model that relies on a "wait to fail"
approach for identification of specific learning disabilities
-
Introduce
a "response to intervention" model that identifies students
with specific learning disabilities before child fails
-
Encourage
use of positive behavioral interventions and supports
-
Increase
professional development and training of general ed & special
Ed teachers
-
Restore
trust and reduce litigation (mediation allowed at any time;
binding arbitration)
-
Pre-referral interventions to children not yet IDEA eligible
to address reading and behavior.
-
Allow
districts to have one discipline policy for all children
Summary of Proposed Bill
Download Full Text of Proposed Bill in pdf format
The bill
is 282 pages long. We suggest that you "right click" the link
and save the file to your hard drive.
Thanks to
Jamie Ruppman, Director of Governmental Relations,
TASH, who sent a link to this proposed bill.
Reauthorizing IDEA - What Next?
These proposed bills were introduced by Republican members of
the Committee on Education and the Workforce. The bills are not
bipartisan bills.
House
Democrats will comment on the proposed bills and suggest
changes. (The Senate has a similar process) The bills will be
amended. After the bills are amended and consolidated, the House
of Representatives will vote on it.
The
Senate will go through a similar process - hold hearings,
propose a bill, amend the bill, and vote by the full Senate.
After the
House and Senate pass their versions of the IDEA reauthorization
bill, both bills will go to a House-Senate conference committee.
This committee will try to resolve the differences between the
two bills.
As you
see, this process can be long and complicated. We thought it may
be helpful to look at the previous IDEA reauthorization to see
how the process unfolded.
IDEA was
last reauthorized in 1997. The bill came up in earlier years but
was not passed by Congress because there were significant
differences between the House and Senate versions that could not
be resolved. Pete testified at the "off the record" hearings
that were held to remove these obstacles.
Bottom
line: We do not know if IDEA will be reauthorized this year. You
need to pay attention. You may want to contact your members of
Congress as the reauthorization process continues.
Learn More About IDEA
If you are the parent of a child with a disability, you need to
know about proposed changes to the IDEA that may affect your
child. For news, resources, alerts, please go to our
IDEA Reauthorization Page
Many
reports and studies have identified the strengths and weaknesses
of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and our
current system of educating children with disabilities.
Read these reports. Familiarize yourself with the issues.
Your
Senators and Representatives should read
these reports before they undertake the job of revising this
law. When you write to your members of Congress, refer to
these reports.
Your Role: Speak Up for the Kids
You need to pay attention to the bills that are coming out of
the House and Senate. As you learn about changes to the law, you
need to contact your members of Congress to let them know your
thoughts.
Read good
advice about
"Communicating with Elected Officials" by phone, letter and
email.
When you
write to your Representative or Senator, your letter will be
more effective if you describe a real situation with your child
or in your school, classroom, or district. Get to the point.
Be a hero
- speak up for the kids! Lack confidence in your letter-writing
skills? Read
"12 Rules for Writing Great Letters" |
