 |
BUDGET
LEGISLATION
FEDERAL AGENCIES
THE SUPREME COURT
BUDGET
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.
LEGISLATION
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.
THE SUPREME COURT
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. |
|
