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LDA NEWS FROM WASHINGTON
February, 2007
BUDGET
LEGISLATION
FEDERAL AGENCIES
THE SUPREME COURT
PRESIDENTS BUDGET - on February 5, President Bush's introduced his proposed budget for fiscal year 2008. Under this proposal, Parts B and Preschool Grants and Part C (early childhood) of IDEA and Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants would be level funded. Funding for discretionary programs (Part D) would be reduced. Funding for Adult Education would be reduced, funding for Vocational and Technical Education would be cut in half and funding for the Javits Gifted and Talented, School Dropout Prevention, Mental Health Integration, and Parent and Information Resource Centers under NCLB would be eliminated. Title I Grants under NCLB and Early Reading First would get slight increases. The striving readers program would get a large increase. In addition three new programs under NCLB are introduced:
- Promise Scholarships, which would pay for tuition, fees and other costs for low income parents to send their children to private or out of district schools
- Math Now for Elementary School Students and
- Math Now for Middle School Students.
This proposal is just the beginning of the budget process. The final
decisions are made by the House and Senate.
THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007 (HJRes
20). On February 15, the Senate approved and sent to
the President the Joint Funding Resolution for Fiscal Year 2007
(CR), which continues funding for the federal government through
October of 2007. Thanks to the efforts in the House to eliminate
all earmarks and the leadership of Harkin (D IA) and Specter
(R PA) in the Senate, $2.3 billion of the $7 billion from the
earmarks was used to increase funding for programs of concern
to individuals with disabilities. These increases include the
$69 million for the National Children's Study, a $250 million
increase in Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act, a $200 million
increase in Grants to States under IDEA, a $104 million increase
in Head Start, a $142 million increase to prevent the Social
Security Administration from furloughing staff for more than
one week, and a $52 million increase to the Centers for Medicare
and Medicare Services to prevent the shutting down on the 1-800-Medicare
call centers for the final months of the fiscal year.
HEAD START - on February 14, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously approved S. 556, the Head Start for School Readiness Act, which reauthorizes the Head Start program for five years. It is expected that the full Senate will vote on the bill sometime in the spring and that the House will begin work on its own version of a Head Start bill in the near future. (Head Start has been out of authorization since 2003)
ADOLESCENT LITERACY
The PATHWAYS FOR ALL STUDENTS TO SUCCEED ACT (PASS,
S 611) - Senator Patty Murray (D WA) reintroduced the PASS Act which
would provide critical resources including literacy and math coaches,
additional academic and career counselors, and grants to fund innovative
reform in high schools across the country.
The STRIVING READERS ACT - Senators Patty
Murray (D WA) and Jeff Sessions (R AL) announced plans to introduce
the Striving Readers Act which would provide grants to every
state for reading and comprehension programs to meet the needs
of students in grades four through twelve
THE MENTAL HEALTH PARITY ACT (S 558) expands
the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 by prohibiting group health
plans from imposing treatment or financial limitations on mental
health benefits that are different from those applied to medical/surgical
services. The legislation applies only to group health plans
already providing mental health benefits and exempts plans sponsored
by small businesses with under 50 employees A similar bill will
be introduced in the House.
FULL FUNDING FOR IDEA BILLS
FULL FUNDING FOR IDEA NOW ACT (HR 526 - Larson
D. CT) to make IDEA funding mandatory and to achieve full 40%
funding immediately.
KEEP OUR PROMISES TO AMERICA'S CHILDREN AND TEACHERS -
(Keep Our PACT Act HR 627 - Van Hollen D. MD) would call for a gradual
increase in funding for IDEA, reaching full-funding by 2015 and also
would fully fund NCLB.
EVERYONE DESERVED UNCONDITIONAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION (EDUCATE HR 821
Van Hollen D. MD) to provide full funding for IDEA - to achieve full 40% funding
immediately.
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
ACT) BILLS
STUDENT SUPPORT Act - (HR 171 Lee D. CA) amends ESEA to provide grants
to increase the number of school-employed mental health providers.
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND IMPROVEMENTS ACT OF 2007 (HR 648 Young R. AK) - amends the ESEA to alter requirements for adequate yearly progress (AYP) assessments of student groups by: (1) allowing states to vary the number of students sufficient for such an assessment from local educational agency (LEA) to LEA and from school to school; (2) lowering the percentage of students in a failing group who must show improvement from the preceding year for a school to avoid corrective action; (3) changing the method of counting students in more than one group; (4) allowing states to use alternative methods of defining AYP; (5) exempting a higher percentage of students from such assessments; (6) giving states greater flexibility in the use of alternative assessments for disabled students and those not proficient in English; and (7) allowing multiple assessments of the same student prior to the following school year and measurement of the achievement of students as if they were in their prior grade. It would limit the implementation of sanctions to schools and LEAs that fail AYP standards in the same subject, for the same group, for two consecutive school years, and the provision of school transfers and supplemental services to students in the group who failed AYP standards. It would also provide further exceptions to, and conditions on, the application of corrective actions.
IMPROVING NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT (S 348 Capro R. ID) - amends the ESEA to alter requirements for adequate yearly progress (AYP) assessments of student groups by: (1) lowering, from 95% to 90%, the minimum percentage of students in each group in a school that must take such assessments; (2) allowing the fractional counting of students who are in more than one group, for each such group; (3) allowing states to treat as proficient or advanced specified scores on alternate assessments for disabled students and those not proficient in English; and (4) allowing states to use alternative methods of defining AYP. It also changes the criteria for schools in need of improvement to limit the identification to those schools that fail AYP standards for two consecutive school years in the same subject for the same group of students, limits students eligible for transfer to another school to students in the failing group and allows schools to provide supplemental services rather than to transfer of them to another school.
KEEPING OUR PROMISE TO AMERICA'S CHILDREN ACT (HR 684
Moore D. KS) - amends Title 1 of the ESEA to (1) provide a moratorium
on compliance by failing schools with certain requirements for achieving
adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward state academic performance standards
(2), if the federal funds appropriated for the pertinent remedial program,
project, or activity are less than those authorized, allow states and
local educational agencies to defer, modify, or suspend related functions
the agencies are required to carry out to ensure that schools achieve
AYP and (3) ensure that the Secretary of Education not apply negative
consequences to such agencies for actions taken under this Act.
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND TIMETABLE
George Miller, Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and Edward
Kennedy of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hope
to pass the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind this year, but the prospects
are dim. Senator Kennedy announced a series of hearings to discuss the following
topics: strategies that promote school improvement, high schools and dropout
prevention strategies, teacher quality, accountability and AYP, assessment
issues, supplemental services and choice, students with disabilities and NCLB,
English language learners and NCLB, and strategies for parental involvement
and community supports for schools.
FUNDING FOR THE STATE CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN (SCHIP)
On February 27, Senator Gordon Smith (R OR) announced his support for an increase
in the federal cigarette tax to fund increased health care coverage for more
children and pregnant women under SCHIP.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
BUILDING THE LEGACY: IDEA 04 (http://idea.ed.gov)
- OSEP has set up a website to provide a "one-stop shop" for resources
related to IDEA and its implementing regulations which, when fully implemented,
will provide searchable versions of IDEA and the regulations, access to cross-referenced
content from other laws (e.g., the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Family
Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), etc.), video clips on selected
topics, topic briefs on selected regulations, links to OSEP's Technical Assistance
and Dissemination (TA&D) Network and a Q&A Corner where you can submit
questions, and a variety of other information sources. Major topics to date
are: Alignment with the No Child Left Behind Act , Discipline, Disproportionality,
Early Intervening Services (EIS), Evaluation and Reevaluation, Funding, Highly
Qualified Teachers (HQT), Identification of Specific Learning Disabilities,
Individualized Education Program (IEP), Monitoring and Enforcement, National
Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), Part C Option, Private
Schools, Procedural Safeguards, Secondary Transition, and Statewide and Districtwide
Assessments
OSEP "TOOL KIT ON TEACHING AND ASSESSING STUDENTS
WITH DISABILITIES: PARENTS' MATERIALS" (www.osepideasthatwork.org/index.asp.)
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
(OSERS) has issued a CD version of the "Tool Kit on Teaching
and Assessing Students With Disabilities: Parents' Materials
which expands the earlier "Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing
Students with Disabilities" Additional materials will
be added as they become available. Current topics from various
sources include
- Assessments Issues (Assessment, Alternate Assessment)
- Progress Monitoring
- Response to Intervention
- Instructional Practices ( K-3 Literacy, Adolescent Literacy)
- Behavior: Accommodations
FINAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
On February 13, the Commission on No Child Left Behind, after holding a dozen
field hearings and analyzing over 10,000 comments, released its recommendations
for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. These are listed
under (1) Effective Teachers for All Students and Effective Principals for
All Communities (2) Accelerating Progress and Closing Achievement Gaps Through
Improved Accountability (3) Moving Beyond the Status Quo to Effective School
Improvements and Student Options (4) Fair and Accurate Assessments of Student
Progress (5) High Standards for Every Student in Every State (6) Ensuring
High Schools Prepare Students for College and the Workplace and (7) Driving
Progress Through Reliable, Accurate Data. (www.aspeninsitute.org)
One of the most controversial recommendations has to do with expanding
the Highly Qualified Teacher designation to include effectiveness as
measured by three years of student achievement data as well as principal
evaluations or teacher peer reviews. The Center on Education Policy's "Principles
for Reauthorizing the Teacher Provisions of NCLB and the Higher Education
Act" (February, 2007 www.cep-dc.org/ncllb/tqp/)
has made the same recommendation. However, the major teacher unions,
NEA and AFT, oppose it. Greg Toppo of USA Today posed both sides of the
issue in www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-02-13-effective-teachers.
The Commission made the following recommendations for Accountability and Assessments
for students with disabilities:
- allow states to include achievement growth as part of the AYP calculations. Students would be considered proficient if they are on track to become proficient within three years. States would have four years to develop and implement systems for tracking individual student performance.
- N size must be no greater than 20.
- schools to be identified as "in need of improvement" only if the same subgroup of students do not make AYP in either reading or math for two consecutive years
- continue to allow scores as proficient 1% of students with significant cognitive disabilities who meet alternate assessments based on alternate standards.
- reduce from 2% to 1% the number of students who meet modified assessments based on modified achievement standards.
- require secondary schools to disaggregate the graduation rate for all students, including students with disabilities. The subgroup of students not tested against grade-level standards would not be included in this calculation.
On Tuesday, February 27, the U. S. Supreme Court heard Sandee and Jeff Winkelman's case against their Ohio school district over private school tuition for their son. The case is not about tuition reimbursement but whether non-lawyer parents may represent the interests of their children with disabilities in federal court. The Justices are expected to issue their decision before the end of this session.
On Monday February 26, the Supreme Court agree to hear the case of the Board of Education of New York City versus Tom F. et al. The issue is whether the parents of a child with a disability are entitled to reimbursement for private school tuition if the child had not previously received special education from the public school system.
LDA News from Washington is a periodic publication of The Learning Disabilities Association of America, Inc. containing news of interest to the volunteer and administrative leadership of National LDA and its State and Local Affiliates written by LDA's Washington Representative, Justine Maloney. LDA members wishing to be added to the email list may contact LDA.
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