REGULATION ON ELIGIBILITY FOR SLD
On December 3, 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (known as IDEA) was signed into law as Public Law
108-446. On December 29, 2004, the Office of Special Education Programs
(OSEP) published a notice requesting advice and recommendations
from the public on regulatory issues under the Act and announcing
a series of seven public meetings in January and February to seek
further input and suggestions from the public.
OSEP posted an advanced copy of the Federal Register Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) shortly before the official posting on
June 21, 2005,(Federal Register Vol.70 No 118, Tuesday, June 21,
2005) inviting comments from the public and announcing the dates
and times of public meetings in seven cities around the country
to collect public comments on the NPRM. The sixty-day comment
period ends at close of business on September 6, the day after Labor
Day.
The Public Policy Committee developed responses and proposed talking
points for the public meetings held in the winter and the summer.
Because of the potential adverse impact of some of the proposed
regulations on eligibility for students with learning disabilities, LDA's response is focused on that area of the regulations. However,
representatives of the Public Policy Committee were also deeply
involved with and signed onto the response to all of the regulations
developed by CCD, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities.
Both the LDA and the CCD responses were reviewed and approved by
the LDA Board of Directors. The LDA response can be found at the
LDA website, http://www.ldaamerica.org.
The CCD response is posted on their website http://www.c-c-d.org/.
Acting OSEP Director Troy Justesen had warned that little attention
would be paid to canned comments which repeated those of another
organization. However, he did request comments from the general
public on how these proposed regulations would affect them or those
they serve. Because of the possible impact of the proposed regulation
which would allow a state to prohibit the use of a discrepancy between
ability and achievement, the following action alert was sent out.
Note that there is a difference between determining that a discrepancy
exists and the use of a discrepancy formula, which ignores other
signs of a specific learning disability.
Please respond, if you have not already done so, to the request
for comments on the proposed regulations. Let the Department know of your concerns in your own words, and, if possible, giving details from your own experience along with your reasons
for commenting. A template follows below.
Troy R. Justesen, Ph.D.
Deputy Assistant Secretary, OSERS
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Potomac Center Plaza, Room 5126
Washington, DC 20202-2641
Dear Dr. Justesen:
I am (an adult with learning disabilities; a parent, family member,
friend, or a student with learning disabilities; a professional
providing services to students with learning disabilities).
I am asking that proposed regulation 300.307(a)(1) be deleted
from the final regulations. I am afraid that school systems will
misinterpret this regulation to mean that the child's intellectual
ability cannot be taken into consideration in evaluating his/her
need for special education.
There is a difference between considering the child's intellectual
ability and using a formula based on statistics only. l (have been
to; heard about)eligibility meetings where, despite the current
regulations, no input was considered except that from the psychologist
who ran the IQ and performance test. I am afraid that this regulation
will be interpreted to mean that the difference between a child's
intellectual ability and his/her performance cannot be used to determine
the need for special education.
Thank you for considering my concerns. Please feel free to contact
me if you have any further questions.
Name
Address
Phone
E Mail
E-mail your comments to Troy Justesen at IDEAComments@ed.gov.
The term IDEA-Part B should be in the subject line.
Please blind copy your comments to Justine Maloney at justinelda@earthlink.net.
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