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IDEA
IMPORTANT The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement
Law becomes effective on July 1st. "States, state educational
agencies, and local educational agencies are required to comply
with the IDEA 2004 on that date.
Regulations and the absence of regulations is not a compelling
argument for not being able to comply. Many of the regulations that
are in the old law are still applicable unless Congress made direct
changes to that particular provision." Acting OSEP Director
Troy Justesen, webcast May 18, 2005
On June 10, the Department of Education posted on its website
the "unofficial " notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM)
for Parts A. B. and D of the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act of 2004 (www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/idea2004.html).
The document is over 600 double spaced pages long. It includes a
good deal of extraneous material, such as a list of the sites for
public meetings on the regulations, an explanation of the proposed
regulatory changes, a summary of the costs and benefits of the changes,
tables showing the current regulatory section and the corresponding
section in the proposed regulations, and finally, the proposed regulations
themselves. Attorney Pete Wright ignored much of this information
and made the key elements of this document - Proposed IDEA Regulations
(97 pages) and Explanations & Commentary (65 pages) - available
at his website, http://www.wrightslaw.com/nltr/05/al.0612.idea.regs2.htm.
The Council for Exceptional Children (http://www.cec.sped.org/)
has posted an "Initial Summary of Selected Provisions from
the "Unofficial' Proposed Regulations" which compares
the proposed regulation, the current regulation, and the Office
of Special Education Programs' (OSEP) discussion of the proposed
change.
Meetings to solicit public comment on the proposed regulations
were scheduled for Nashville, TN (June 17); Sacramento, CA (June
22), Las Vegas NV (June 24), New York, NY (June 27), Chicago, IL
(June 29), San Antonio, TX (July 7) and Washington, DC (July 12).
Although there was little time to read and understand these proposals,
much less comment on them, LDA has prepared talking points to help
those attending these meetings. The emphasis was on the proposed
regulations on Eligibility for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities
and the requirements for a Summary of Performance for transition
from school to postsecondary options. These talking points are posted
on the LDA website; www.ldaamerica.org.
Following the first meeting, Assistant Secretary for the Office
of Special Education Programs John Hager was quoted as saying, "I
was very encouraged that the comments were as limited as they were.
.I thought that while there were a few specific references, some
general references and a lot of wish lists, it was an endorsement
and that we must have done a pretty good job." This statement
was made despite a report from the same source that: "The proposed
IDEA regulations] do little more than reiterate the language of
the statute ... it shifts accountability and control away from individualized
education program teams, to school systems, which have historically
not been compliant with IDEA," Hager's response to those criticisms
was that much of the criticism and concerns aired stemmed from dissatisfaction
with the IDEA itself and not the regulation crafted around it. "Hardly
anybody is going to take the time to come and say they like something.
..This is a place to vent, so to speak." He pointed out that
in putting together the regulations, OSERS' job was to implement
the intent of Congress, as expressed through its legislation, and
that no effort was made to go beyond what the legislature passed
and President Bush signed. Discipline, IEPs, and RTI were the top
concerns voiced at New York IDEA hearing. A spokesman for the International
Reading Association supported the RTI and a spokesman for the New
Jersey Speech and Hearing Association urged that speech language
pathologists be part of the RTI team.
The "official" notice of proposed regulations was published
in the Federal Register on June 21, 2005. Comments are due by September
6. All comments must be sent to Troy R. Justesen, U.S. Department
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Potomac Center Plaza, Room
5126, Washington, DC 20202-2641.
Because all first-class and Priority mail sent to the Department
is put through an irradiation process, resulting in lengthy delays,
the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) recommends that
commercial delivery services or e mail be used to ensure timely
delivery of comments. Comments sent through the Internet may be
sent to IDEAComments@ed.gov. The term IDEA-Part B must be in the
subject line of the electronic message. Assistant Secretary Hager
announced that the final regulations should be out by around December
1.
In his May 18 Webcast on the IDEA regulations, Justesen emphasized
the importance of being specific about what is supported and what
is to be changed in a given regulation. Form letters are not useful.
Instead, the impact on the proposed regulation on the education
of children with disabilities should be described.
UPDATE ON THE 2% TESTING
FLEXIBILITY FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Although it is not clear which students are eligible and how they
are to be assessed, as of June 1, 42 states had submitted letters
of intent to use the 2% waiver.. Despite the requirement that states
have the same subgroup size for students with disabilities as for
other subgroups, Alaska, Kansas, New Jersey, Washington and Wisconsin
-- all of which have a higher subgroup size for students with disabilities
- were among the states applying. Washington proposes to solve the
problem by raising its N size for all subgroups to that of students
with disabilities. The nine states that did not apply are Alabama,
Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, New York, South Carolina, Rhode Island,
Texas and Wyoming. The Education Department already has given 17
states verbal approval to take advantage of the new 2 percent testing
flexibility for students with disabilities. All but one of these
will be allowed to apply the flexibility retroactively when calculating
whether schools made AYP for the 2004-05 school year. These states
are: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Washington. None of the remaining
25 states has been officially rejected.
LEGISLATION
APPROPRIATIONS
The House Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee marked up its appropriations
bill on June 6. Education received an increase of only $115 million
or 0.2%; the smallest increase in a decade but better than the President's
budget, which called for a $530 million cut from FY05 levels. Of
the major education programs, Pell grants were increased by $1 billion,
Title I of No Child Left Behind received a $100 million increase
(actually NCLB received an overall cut of $806 million, or 3.3%)
and IDEA state grants received a $150 million increase (with other
cuts in IDEA, federal funding would drop from 18.6% to 18.1%, the
first time the percentage of the federal contribution has dropped
since the early '90s). Twenty-three programs were terminated including
the "Demonstration Projects To Ensure Students With Disabilities
Receive A Quality Higher Education," which supports postsecondary
faculty and staff in effectively teaching and serving students with
disabilities. However, $3.6 billion in programs, including TRIO,
GEAR UP, LEAP, regional education laboratories, and Perkins Career
and Technical Education, that the President's budget had marked
for cuts were restored..
Programs which were not eliminated such as adult ed were funded
at last year's levels. The President's $1.5 billion high school
initiative was not funded and his teacher incentive fund received
$100 million instead of the $500 million requested. Vocational Rehabilitation
state grants were increased by $84.3 million, but funding for Migrant
and Seasonal Farmworkers, Projects with Industry, and Supported
Employment State grants was cut. The 0.5% increase for the National
Institute of Health was the smallest percentage increase in 36 years,
and 2.6% short of what NIH estimates it needs just to keep up with
inflation in research costs. The Senate will act later.
Note
It is unfortunate that most of our programs of interest are in the
same subcommittee bill competing for the same pot of dollars. LDA
supports adequate and appropriate funding for all our programs of
interest...and that we urge Congress to make "human services"
in all its iterations as its major funding priority!
REAUTHORIZATION OF THE CARL PERKINS VOCATIONAL AND
TECHNICAL EDUCATION ACT
Despite the Administration's opposition, both the Senate and the
House passed versions of the reauthorization (S 250, HR 366). A
conference committee to reconcile differences between the two bills
still has not yet been named..
REAUTHORIZATION OF THE WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT (WIA)
The House is waiting for action from the Senate. The HELP committee
passed its bill. However, it is not expected to come to the floor
until the Fall.
REAUTHORIZATION OF TEMPORARY AID TO NEEDY FAMILIES
(TANF) (HR 240, S 667)
Action on the reauthorization is stalled. Another Continuing Resolution
has been passed to authorize the bill until September 30.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Mississippi State Superintendent of Education Dr. Henry L. Johnson
has been nominated to fill the position of Assistant U.S. Secretary
for Elementary and Secondary Education recently vacated by Raymond
Joseph Simon. Dr. Simon is now Deputy Secretary of Education.
Dr Edward Kame'enui of the University of Oregon has been named
the nation's first Commissioner for Special Education Research,
the new office within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
Dr. Troy R. Justesen has been named to serve as Deputy Assistant
Secretary for OSERS.
On June 15, Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon informed Representative
Mike Simpson that the deadline for Title I Paraprofessionals to
meet the highly qualified requirements will be changed from January
1, 2006 to the end of the 2005-2006 school year.
On June 29, proposed regulations for the National Instructional
Materials Accessibility Standard for elementary or secondary school
persons who are blind or who have print disabilities as required
by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of
2004 were published in the Federal Register.
LDA News from Washington is a periodic publication of The
Learning Disabilities Assocation of America, Inc., 4156 Library
Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15234-1349, Phone: 412.341.1515, Fax: 412.344.0224
This is a bulletin containing news of interest to the volunteer
and administrative leadership of LDA National and its State and
Local Affiliates. Written by LDA's Washington Representative, Justine
Maloney; Kathy Lawson, Editor. LDA members wishing to be
added to the email list may contact Kathy Lawson, at klawson@ldaamerica.org.
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