LEGISLATION
FEDERAL AGENCIES
REPORTS
LEGISLATION
EVERYONE DESERVES UNCONDITIONAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION ACT (H R.
821, Van Hollen, D, MD) would allow Congress to fulfill its 32
year-old promise to provide 40 percent of the National Average
per Pupil Expenditure for every child in special education.
THE TOXICS RIGHT TO KNOW PROTECTION ACT (HR 1055, Pallone, NJ;
S 595, Lautenberg,NJ) requires the administrator of the Environmental
Protection Act of 1086 to establish the eligibility threshold regarding
the use of a Form A certification statement under the toxic release
inventory program at not greater than 500 pounds for nonpersistent
bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals. This legislation was introduced
to counter the EPA ruling that weakened reporting requirements
for its Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program.
Much of other relevant legislation is related to NCLB, referred
to as ESEA, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND STUDENT SUPPORT ACT (HR 171, Lee, D, Ca)
amends the 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) alters 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. Among other provisions,
the bill limits 1) 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 2) the provision of school
transfers and supplemental services to students in the group who
failed AYP standards.
KEEPING OUR PROMISE TO AMERICA'S CHILDREN ACT (HR 684, Moore D,
KS) provides a moratorium on compliance by failing schools with
certain requirements for achieving adequate yearly progress (AYP)
toward state academic performance standards; allows states and
local educational agencies, if the federal funds appropriated for
the pertinent remedial program, project, or activity are less than
those authorized, to defer, modify, or suspend related functions
the agencies are required to carry out to ensure that schools achieve
AYP; and requires the secretary of education to ensure that negative
consequences shall not apply to such agencies for actions taken
under this act.
EMPOWERING PARENTS THROUGH CHOICE ACT, (HR 1486, McKeon, CA) amends
the ESEA to provide parental choice for those students who attend
schools that are in need of improvement and have been identified
for restructuring
Webcasts of the following Congressional Hearings on the reauthorization
of NCLB are archived at: http://edworkforce.house.gov/committee/hearings.shtml
Joint Hearing with The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee On "Elementary and Secondary Act Reauthorization:
Improving NCLB to Close The Achievement Gap" - March 13
Full Committee Hearing on "ESEA Reauthorization: Options
for Improving NCLB's Measures Of Progress" - March 21
Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education
on "How NCLB Affects Students with Disabilities" -
March 29
FEDERAL AGENCIES
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
FINAL REGULATIONS to allow states to count
2.0 percent of proficient and advanced scores on an alternate
assessment based on modified academic achievement standards
when measuring adequate yearly progress were published in the April
9th Federal Register.
The regulations, which apply to No Child Left Behind and IDEA,
allow a state to develop modified assessments based on modified
grade level content standards, subject to the following conditions:
* Modified academic achievement standards must be aligned with
the academic content standards for the grade in which a student
is enrolled.
* Out of level assessments may not be used as an alternate assessment
based on modified academic achievement standards.
* A state may develop an alternate assessment based on modified
achievement standards for some, but not all, grades and for some,
but not all, subjects.
* Strategies for decreasing the difficulty of an alternate assessment
may include
- Replacing the most difficult items with simpler items appropriate
for the grade level
- Simplifying the language of the item
- Reducing the number of choices in a multiple choice answer
- Allowing students to access items by print, spoken or pictorial
form
- Dictating responses
- Using math manipulatives
* The IEP team determines annually how the student will participate
in state and district wide assessments.
- The goals must be based on the academic content standards for
the grade in which the student is enrolled.
- A student may take a standard assessment in one subject and
an assessment based on a modified academic achievement standard
in another subject
* Within two years, the state must (a) establish and monitor clear
and appropriate guidelines for the IEP team to apply in developing
and implementing the IEP of a student assessed on modified academic
achievement standards; b) ensure that a student who takes an alternate
assessment based on modified academic achievement standards has
access to the curriculum for the grade in which the student is
enrolled; and ensure that a student who takes an alternate assessment
based on modified academic achievement standards is not precluded
from attempting to complete the requirements for a regular high
school diploma.
* The state must provide IEP Teams with a clear explanation of
the differences between assessments based on grade-level academic
achievement standards and those based on modified or alternate
academic achievement standards, including any effects of state
or local policies on a students education, such as whether only
satisfactory performance on a regular assessment would qualify
a student for a regular high school diploma.
* The state must ensure that the parents of students selected
to be assessed based on alternate or modified academic achievement
standards are informed that their child's achievement will be measured
based on alternate or modified academic achievement standards.
* Any number of students with disabilities can take the modified
assessment, but the scores of only 2% of all students can be counted
as proficient. There is no exemption from the 1% cap for students
with who score proficient on alternate assessments based on alternate
achievement standards. However, if the proficient or advanced scores
for these students is less than 1%, the 2% cap can be increased
to make up the difference up to 3%. For example, if the number
of proficient and advanced scores on alternate assessments based
on alternate achievement standards is 0.8%, the state or LEA could
include 2.2% of the proficient and advanced scores on alternate
assessments based on modified academic achievement standards
*Under the new regulations all states are:
- prohibited from establishing a different N size for different
subgroups of students for purposes of measuring Adequate Yearly
Progress.
- allowed to administer assessments more than once and count
the student's best score in determining adequate yearly progress.
- allowed to count as proficient under the subgroup of students
with disabilities the scores of students with disabilities
for two years after they no longer receive special education
services.
The regulations can be downloaded from:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/proprule/2007-1/033007d.html
A non regulatory guide to modified academic achievement standards
can be downloaded at:
http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/nclb/twopercent
Transition of Students With Disabilities To Postsecondary
Education: A Guide for High School Educators (March
2007) was developed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office
for Civil Rights (OCR) to provide high school educators with
answers to questions students with disabilities may have as they
get ready to move to the postsecondary education environment.
The publication is available on the Department's Web
site.
Any updates to this publication will be available on this Web
site.
REPORTS
"Public And Parent Reporting Requirements: NCLB And IDEA",
An In-Depth Policy Analysis of the Requirements Of The NCDB and
IDEA Regulations, can be found at NASDSE's Website http://www.projectforum.org/
States Face Challenges in Monitoring Supplemental Education Services
under the No Child Left Behind Act: A Report from the Center on
Education Policy
The No Child Left Behind Act requires that supplemental services
must be provided to low-income students in Title I schools that
have failed to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) for three or
more consecutive years. But data from a survey conducted in the
fall of 2006, CEP reports that 38 states say they are unable to
monitor "to a great extent" the "quality and effectiveness" of
supplemental service providers. In most cases, states report having
insufficient staff and inadequate federal funding to monitor effectively
The report can be downloaded from the website http://www.cep-dc.org
Education Trust Recommendations For No Child Left Behind
Reauthorization were released on April 11, 2007. Recommendations include:
- Results-based accountability
- Accountability for academic gains of individual student groups
- Explicit timelines and goals for raising overall achievement
and closing gaps between groups
- Consequences for consistently low-performing schools
- A focus on boosting the quality and effectiveness of teachers,
particularly in high-poverty and high-minority schools
- Providing the public in general and parents in particular with
information about their schools
- so they can effectively engage with schools and advocate for
students.
The full report or summary can be found at http://www2.edtrust.org
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
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