News from Washington June-July 2003 - Learning Disabilities Association of America

IDEA REAUTH0RIZATI0N PASSES SENATE HELP COMMITTEE (S 1248). On June 12, Senators Gregg and Kennedy introduced the bipartisan Senate bill reauthorizing IDEA, S 1248. After a week of comments, the bill was revised and passed without amendment by unanimous vote of the HELP committee June 25. The provision for SLD eligibility is identical in both the Senate and the House bills. More below…

REALIZING THE SPIRIT OF IDEA (HR 1576). On April 2, Representative Pete Stark reintroduced the Realizing the Spirit of IDEA Act. The bill would not only to increase funding for IDEA but also to provide bonus payments to States that provide special education and other educational services for children with disabilities.

THE CHILD MEDICATION SAFETY ACT OF 2003 (HR 1170). On May 21, the full House passed The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003 (HR 1170), which would require every state to develop and implement policies and procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a child to take medication as a condition of attending school or receiving school services. States that take no action will lose federal education funding. An amendment clarified that educators are not prohibited from discussing their concerns with parents.

THE SCHOOL READINESS ACT OF 2003 (HR 2210) (HEAD START). On June 12, the Subcommittee on Education Reform of the House Education and the Workforce Committee passed their bill to reauthorize the Head Start Program. Head Start would remain at the Department of Health and Human Services. The original proposal to set up a demonstration program to allow states to include Head Start and early childhood education programs in a block grant was modified to limit the demonstration programs to eight states. More below…

FEDERAL FUNDING UPDATE. On June 19, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved a spending bill that would provide $55.4 billion for the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal 2004. The 4.3 percent increase is the smallest percentage increase for education spending in eight years and is $700 million below the amount promised in the Congressional budget resolution. More below…

CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

IDEA REAUTH0RIZATI0N PASSES HELP COMMITTEE (S 1248)

At long last, on June 12, the Senators Judd Gregg and Ted Kennedy introduced the bipartisan Senate version of the reauthorization of IDEA, S 1248. After allowing a week for receiving comments the bill was revised and passed without amendments by the unanimous vote 0f the full HELP committee on June 25. The provision for SLD eligibility is identical in both the Senate and the House bills. A comparison of the House and Senate bills follows.

Similarities

No longer requires local education agencies to use a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability to determine eligibility for services under Specific Learning Disabilities SLD). Failure to respond to research-based intervention may be used in the process for determining SLD.
Eliminates the requirements that IEPs must include benchmarks and short-term objectives but requires a description of how progress is measured, including quarterly reports to parents.
Allows local education agencies to use up to 15% of IDEA funds to help students not yet identified with disabilities but who require additional academic and behavioral support to succeed in a general education environment.
Allows parents and schools to agree to make changes to an IEP during the year without having to reconvene an entire IEP meeting
Allows parents and schools to agree that a student reevaluation is unnecessary, especially when the student is finishing high school.
Requires that hearing officers make decisions based upon substantive grounds--not on technical errors that have no effect on the child's education
Requires complaints of either the school or parents to be clear and specific before going to a due process hearing.
Changes the number of times that procedural safeguards notices must be sent out to parents to no more than once per year, unless the parent registers a complaint or requests a copy.
Allows parents of a child served under Part C to keep the same service providers -- public or private -- for their child until the child reaches school-age.

Differences

Allows personnel who are excused from IEP meetings by the parent and school to participate by submitting input prior to the meeting.(The House bill just allows personnel to be excused from the IEP meeting
Ensures that the IEP contains positive behavioral interventions and supports for a child whose behavior impedes the child's learning, or that of others. ·
Requires schools to consider whether a child's behavior was the result of their disability when considering disciplinary action. (The House bill does not address the possible relationship of disability to behavior.
Notifies parents when disciplinary action is being considered.
Limits the three year IEP to students aged 18-21 (The House bill allows three year IEP’s that coincide with natural school transitions.)
Establishes a two-year statute of limitations for filing a complaint and a 90-day limit for filing appeals to a court, unless State law provides for alternative time frames. (The House bill has a one year statute of limitation.)

Provisions in S 1248 Alone

Requires that transition services begin at age 14, rather than the current age 16.
Facilitates transition to post-secondary activities with exit evaluations based on recommendations developed to meet the child’s post-secondary goals.
Promotes the involvement of the State vocational rehabilitation system while students with disabilities are still in secondary school.
Clarifies that special education teachers who teach elementary material in either elementary or secondary schools or act as consultants but do no direct instruction must be certified in special education rather than in every subject they teach.
Extends the timeframe for special education teachers to be highly qualified to the end of the 2006-07 school year.
Prohibits parents from suing school districts if a teacher fails to meet the highly qualified standards mandated in the bill and in No Child Left Behind, unless the parent can prove the child was denied FAPE
Provides for the establishment of risk pool fund to help local education agencies meet the needs of high cost children and unanticipated enrollment.

No date has been set for floor vote on the bill. P0ssible amendments include the Harkin- Hagel proposal for full funding of IDEA, and the Clinton-Alexander proposal to study the environmental causes of developmental disabilities. Senator Mikulski expressed concern about using IDEA funds for non special education activities. A voucher amendment is also expected.

LDA will be urging Senators to support an amendment to Section 614(b)(6) which would require a cognitive measure to determine if the child has the ability to achieve at least commensurate with his/her age.

REALIZING THE SPIRIT OF IDEA ACT (HR 1576)

On April 2, Representative Pete Stark reintroduced the Realizing the Spirit of IDEA Act The bill would not only to increase funding for IDEA but also to provide bonus payments to States that provide special education and other educational services for children with disabilities,

THE CHILD MEDICATION SAFETY ACT OF 2003 (HR 1170)

On May 21, the full House passed The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003 (HR 1170), which would require every state to develop and implement policies and procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a child to take medication as a condition of attending school or receiving school services. States that take no action will lose federal education funding. An amendment clarified that educators are not prohibited from discussing their concerns with parents.

THE SCHOOL READINESS ACT OF 2003 ( HR 2210) (HEAD START)

On June 12, the Subcommittee on Education Reform of the House Education and the Workforce Committee passed their bill to reauthorize the Head Start Program. The bill emphasizes cognitive development and the results of scientifically-based research in areas critical to children’s school readiness (including language, pre-reading, pre-mathematics, and English language acquisition) and requires all new Head Start teachers to have at least an associates degree in early childhood education or a related field within three years. By 2008, 50 percent of Head Start teachers nationwide must have at least a bachelors degree. Current health and nutrition services for Head Start children would continue and Head Start would remain at the Department of Health and Human Services. The original proposal to set up a demonstration program to allow states to include Head Start and early childhood education programs in a block grant was modified to limit the demonstration programs to eight states.

THE READY TO TEACH ACT (HR 2211)

On May 22, the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness of the House Education and the Workforce Committee introduced the Ready to Teach Act (H.R. 2211), the first in what will be a series of bills to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). “The Ready to Teach Act aligns teacher training programs under HEA with the definitions and provisions for highly qualified teachers in the No Child Left Behind Act, coordinating activities under the two Acts and bringing the accountability found in NCLB into teacher training programs. Reforms included in the legislation would infuse new quality and accountability measures into the grants administered for teacher training programs, and provide innovative approaches that would improve the teaching workforce so critical to the success of K-12 education reform.”

FEDERAL FUNDING UPDATE

On June 19, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved a spending bill that would provide $55.4 billion for the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal 2004. The 4.3 percent increase is the smallest percentage increase for education spending in eight years and is $700 million below the amount promised in the congressional budget resolution. Nonetheless, Special Education grants (IDEA) were increased by $1 billion, Reading First and Early Reading First grants to states were increased to $1.15 billion, and Head Start funding was boosted by $148 million.

The bill restored funding to three programs that were cut dramatically by the President’s budget—the Smaller Learning Communities program, 21st Century Learning Communities, and vocational education. The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its bill on June 26. Because the spending ceiling for the Senate’s Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill is $445 million below the House ceiling, the Senate totals for education are lower than the levels reported out of the House subcommittee. Most of the action on the Senate appropriations bill, which probably will not occur for several weeks, is likely to take place on the Senate floor in the form of amendments to increase funding.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

THE OSEP.NASDSE/PTI CONFERENCE

On May 28 and 29 Justine Maloney and LDA Consultant Myrna Mandlawitz attended the annual OSEP/NASDSE/PTI Conference. Details of that conference can be found at www.dscc.org/frc under Conferences.

The PowerPoint of the presentation of Louisa Moats on “Focusing on Improving Reading Results for Children with Disabilities” can be downloaded from http://www.federalresourcecenter.org/frc/lead2003/materials.htm
At the session on “Improving Results for Students with Learning Disabilities”, Douglas Carnine, Professor and Director of the National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators, UOR, attacked the IQ discrepancy formula as a wait to fail mode; Lana Michelson described the IOWA early intervention model; Judy Eliot described the Long Beach, CA Student Success Team Program; and Doug Fuchs described the mission of the newly formed OSEP-funded National Research Center on Learning Disabilities.

OSEP Director Stephanie Lee presented an overview of No Child Left Behind and Children with Disabilities. A power point comparison of the requirements of NCLB and IDEA can be downloaded from the OSEP web site. She later moderated a panel of Department of Education Policy Experts on NCLB and IDEA. NCLB’s prohibition against using out of level testing was seen as a problem, although one panelist pointed out that school district’s can still do out of level testing for their own use.

Annie White and Connie Garner of the Senate Health, Education Labor, and Pensions Committee and David Cleary and Alex Nock of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce gave updates on the IDEA legislation and graciously listened to questions from conference participants.

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SEEKS INPUT FOR A NEW NATIONAL EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY PLAN

The No Child Left Behind Act charges the secretary of education with developing the nation's third National Education Technology Plan. Individuals and organizations are being asked to identify and communicate to the Department of Education their top issues, priorities, concerns, and barriers that need to be addressed for technology to improve teaching and learning in the 21st century. Interested parties can give their input by visiting the National Education Technology Plan's Web site at http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/, and clicking on the "Participate in the Plan" link.

MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS WORKING GROUP ON SECONDARY EDUCATION AND TRANSITION

On May 19, Justine Maloney attended a meeting of Working Group cosponsored by NASDSE and the NCSET (National Center on Secondary Education and Transition).

THE SCHOOL PESTICIDE REFORM COALITION AND BEYOND PESTICIDES issued a guide for “Safer Schools: Achieving a Healthy Learning Environment Through Integrated Pest Management"(www.beyondpesticides.org/schools). The guide lists strategies schools may use to decrease pesticide use while implementing more effective pest management strategies.

LDA News from Washington is a monthly publication of the Learning Disabilities Association of America written by Justine Maloney; Jane Browning, editor. Available by mail free to members of LDA upon request.

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