ACT NOW AS IF YOUR CHILD?’S EDUCATION DEPENDS
ON IT-BECAUSE IT DOES!
On Sept. 21, 2004, the U.S. Senate appointed members to the conference committee charged with negotiating the differences between IDEA reauthorization bills passed by the House and the Senate. Each member of the Senate?’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was appointed to the conference committee. The House is expected to appoint its conferees shortly.
Appointing conferees signals that each body wishes to pass an IDEA reauthorization bill before the end of the calendar year. The conference committee can be expected to complete its work-that is, iron out the differences and agree upon language from the two versions passed by their respective branches-after the November 2004, elections. If the conference committee fails to reach agreement or the House and Senate do not act on a Conference Committee Report, the reauthorization process would start anew in the next session of Congress.
Your Help is Needed:
Parents and advocates are asked to call and fax their members of Congress starting now and going through November. Please also regularly contact the majority and minority leadership of the Senate and House Committees (Sen. Gregg, R. N.H.; Sen. Kennedy, D. MA.; Rep. Boehner, R. OH.; Rep. Miller, D. CA). Go to www.congress.org to find out the name of your Senators and Representative and their phone or fax numbers and the contact information for the majority and minority committee leaders. You may also get this information by calling the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 1-800-839-5276.
Please give them this overall message:
?“Don?’t leave children with disabilities behind! The current House and Senate IDEA bills turn back the clock 30 years for students who have disabilities. Oppose any IDEA Reauthorization conference report that weakens the rights of children with disabilities.?”
Tell them that:
?· Annual Individual Education Programs (IEP?’s) are essential to help students with disabilities meet state standards, as required by No Child Left Behind;
?· Short-term instructional objectives enable parents and teachers to know that special education is working;
?· It is imperative for parents to hold schools accountable by exercising due process in resolving disputes and having access to attorneys to represent them. Don?’t change current law in these areas;
?· Schools should not be permitted to use unqualified teachers, to teach students with disabilities, because it is contrary to the No Child Left Behind law;
?· Schools should not be allowed to punish students for their disabilities, by making it easier to suspend, expel, and transfer students with behavioral manifestations, and eliminating the ?“stay put?” protection. Doing so will allow schools to disrupt students?’ education without having to first properly demonstrate the justification for that decision;
?· The federal government must have the ability to hold states accountable to correctly administer the law.
Unless significant language changes are made, it is almost certain that any bill emerging from the Conference Committee will substantially weaken protections for children with disabilities and compromise their right to access a high quality education.
Children with disabilities will be left behind!
IDEA Reauthorization Background Information
Last spring the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1350, its version of a bill amend and reauthorize IDEA. This bill was opposed by virtually every parent and advocacy organization in the nation because it greatly weakens the current IDEA law. On May 13, 2004 the U.S. Senate passed S. 1248, its version of the bill. The Senate bill is an improvement over the House bill in some respects, but also significantly weakens the current IDEA law.
Listed below are a number of provisions in the House and Senate passed bills that will weaken the rights and protections of children with disabilities.
?· Both bills eliminate required short term objectives in the Individualized Education Program, a major tool used to measure whether a student is making adequate progress.
?· Both bills will allow for three year IEP?’s thus undermining efforts to close the achievement gap and to hold schools accountable for helping students be successful.
?· Both bills will make it more difficult for families to pursue their right to due process by threatening sanctions and limiting the fees paid to attorneys representing parents.
?· Both bills weaken current protections for students with disabilities by making it much easier for schools to suspend or expel them, even when the behavior is part of the student?’s disability. Both bills guarantee that education for these children will be disrupted and that they will fall further behind because they eliminate the right of a non-dangerous, non-disruptive child to ?“stay-put?” in his/her current educational placement when parents complain about suspensions, exclusions, punishment, or whether the IEP is being effectively implemented.
?· Neither bill requires mandatory full funding of IDEA at the promised funding level to support the additional cost of educating students receiving special education services (despite the fact that the Federal government only funds about 18% of the total cost of educating students with disabilities).
?· Both bills permit states to negotiate paperwork reductions with the U.S. Department of Education without having defined ?“paperwork?” and without seeking input from parents and advocates on what those reductions should entail.
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