 |
News from Washington
May 2003
H.R. 1350: A BAD IDEA.
On April 30, six weeks after it was first introduced, the House of Representatives passed its version of the reauthorization of IDEA. Despite a national call-in day supported by LDA and dozens of other disability groups opposing passage of H.R. 1350 as “a bad IDEA,” the Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act of 2003 passed by a vote of 251-171, primarily on party lines. More below…
WAITING FOR THE SENATE BILL.
The Senate HELP Committee hopes to introduce their bipartisan bill by mid May. Advocates will have two weeks to respond to the bill when it is introduced. It will then be marked up by the committee and passed to the Senate floor. The controversial issues of full funding and vouchers will not be in the bill but will be decided on the Senate floor.
HR 1261, THE WORKFORCE REINVESTMENT AND ADULT EDUCATION ACT OF 2003.
On May 8, the House passed the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act by a vote of 220-204. The bill still contains issues of concern to the disability community. More below…
TANF, TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE TO NEEDY FAMILIES.
In early February the bill for the reauthorization of TANF, H.R. 4, which had passed the House but not the Senate in the 107th Congress, was sent directly to the floor of the House, where it passed on partisan lines. The bill (now called the Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act of 2003) would require 70 percent of a state’s welfare recipients to work 40 hours a week by 2008. There is no flexibility to allow education and training to count towards that 40 hours. More bills related to TANF below…
THE WOMEN'S HEALTH ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTERS AND HORMONE DISRUPTION RESEARCH ACT OF 2003.
Introduced by Rep. Louise Slaughter, H.R. 852 would require the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to establish a comprehensive research program on the impact of hormone disrupting chemicals as they affect human, ecological, and wildlife health.
Also…Proposal to dismantle ERIC Clearinghouse; GAO Report on Juvenile Justice & More
CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
On April 30, six weeks after it was first introduced, the House of Representatives by a vote of 251 to 171 passed its version of the reauthorization of IDEA –H.R. 1350, the Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act of 2003. The vote was primarily on party lines. Only seven Republicans voted against the bill and 34 Democrats voted for it.
The lopsided vote may have been due, in part, to an Education and the Workforce Chairman’s Dear Republican Colleague letter which warned that “a national call in day has been organized for today, Tuesday, April 29, 2003 by opponents of improving the nations special education law.” Attached to the letter was a “fact sheet that addresses inaccurate information being circulated about H.R. 1350”. The “fact sheet” did not address many of the concerns expressed by parents and advocates, including changing the eligibility for specific learning disabilities, allowing local school districts to use up to 15% of IDEA funds for services to students not yet found eligible for IDEA services, and changing the content and participants in the IEP process. This letter is posted on http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/education/idea/dcfacts042903.htm. The White House press release in support of H.R. 1350 can be found by checking H.R. 1350 at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative
The bill which was sent to the floor postponed the elimination of short term objectives in the IEP (except for students taking alternate assessments) until school year 2005/06; increased the time for responding to proposed regulations from 30 to 60 days; and eliminated the restrictions on the Parent Training Centers (Part D.) However, it did include amendments which would 1) let the governor set a cap on attorney’s fees and 2) not require an evaluation of a child with a disability prior to graduation if the IEP team agrees.
The House Rules Committee allowed only 14 amendments to be offered on the floor. One of these would have required a medical diagnosis to determine the existence of a specific learning disability. Fortunately it failed by a vote of 54-367. Two amendments to allow Part B money to be used for private school tuition also failed. The most dangerous of the amendments that passed was the Shadegg amendment, which expressed the sense of Congress that students should not be classified as disabled without being certified by a physician. A summary of the final bill is on the LDA website. The full text of H.R. 1350, including all of the amendments added during last week can be found by going to http://thomas.loc.gov and entering "H.R. 1350."
Although the bill has passed the House, Representatives will again be asked to vote on a final bill which will be crafted by a Conference Committee made up of members of the House and Senate Committees which drafted the original bills.
OTHER BILLS RELATED TO IDEA
Parental Choice Bill (H.R. 1373, Rep DeMint) failed when offered as an amendment to H.R. 1350 on the House floor.
Paperwork Reduction Act (H.R.464 Rep Keller) Most of the provisions of this bill were incorporated in H.R. 1350.
Improved Instructional Material Access Act (H.R. 490, Rep Petri) The bill, which would improve access to printed instructional materials used by blind or other persons with print disabilities in elementary and secondary schools, was incorporated into H.R. 1350.
Full Funding for Assistance for Education of all Children with Disabilities Act. (H.R. 283, Rep Larson) There are few specifics in this bill.
To Amend The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act to fully fund 40 percent of the average per pupil expenditure for programs under part B of such Act. (S. 133 Sen. Dayton).
IDEA Full-Funding Act Of 2003 (S. 939 Sens Hagel and Harkin) This bill would fully fund IDEA, by paying 40 percent of the per pupil costs, in eight years through mandatory annual allocations of $2 billion, until the federal contribution reaches $24.6 billion in 2011. Local education agencies would be allowed to use 100% of each annual increase for programs other than IDEA. This percentage would replace the 20% allowed under current law.
On May 8, the House passed H.R. 1261, The Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act of 2003 by a vote of 220-204. The closeness of the vote may be due to the fact that it would allow faith-based providers to engage fully as service providers in the One-Stop Career Centers without relinquishing their ability to hire on a religious basis.
The bill still contains issues of concern to the disability community such as:
- the Governor would have “unrestricted authority” to take funds from a variety of programs for people with disabilities, including Vocational Rehabilitation, Adult Education, and TANF, to pay for the infrastructure of the One Stop Centers with no assurance that the One Stops would provide access or provide services to individuals with disabilities;
- funding for the Adult, Dislocated Worker and Wagner-Peyser (Employment Services) would be consolidated into one funding stream; and
- funding for youth programs would be focused on out of school youth only.
- A bill to amend part A of Title IV of the Social Security Act to exclude child care from the determination of the 5-year limit on assistance under the TANF program (S. 251 Sen.Bingaman).
- A bill to amend the TANF program to improve the provision of education and job training under that program (S. 252 Sen Bingaman).
- A bill to amend Part A of Title IV of the Social Security Act to allow up to 24 months of vocational educational training to be counted as a work activity under the TANF program. (S. 327 Sen. Levin).
OTHER BILLS
The Child Medication Safety Act (H.R 1170) would require states, as a condition of receiving federal education funds, to establish policies and procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a child to take medication in order to attend school.
The ADA Notification Act (H.R. 728) would amend the ADA to require that an individual alleging a business is inaccessible provide written notice to the business about the specific ADA violation ninety days before bringing suit, and will not allow for attorneys' fees and costs.
Department Of Defense Authorization Bill For Fiscal Year 2004 (H.R. 1588) would exempt the Department of Defense (DOD) from public health and environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Superfund (CERCLA), the Endangered Species Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
PROPOSAL TO DISMANTLE ERIC
In its draft Scope of Work for the next round of competitions for the system, the Education Department would dismantle the current 16 Clearinghouses, including the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education.
ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
On March 20th, the U.S. Department of Education issued a proposed rule to amend Title I under No Child Left Behind, as it relates to State, LEA, and school accountability for the academic achievement of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
GAO REPORT ON JUVENILE JUSTICE
The Government Accounting Office report “Federal Agencies Could Play a Stronger Role in Helping States Reduce the Number of Children Placed Solely to Obtain Mental Health Services” (GAO-03-397, April 21) can be found at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-397.
NATIONAL COLLABORATIVE ON WORKFORCE AND DISABILITY
One of two technical assistance centers funded by the US Department of Labor to assist the workforce development community address issues affecting the employment of people with disabilities has a new website at www.ncwd-youth.info. The site contains useful information and resources for youth with disabilities and their families, service providers and other front line workers, administrators, policy makers, and employers.
ODEP WORKFORCE RECRUITMENT
The Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), in cooperation with the Department of Defense, now offers a database of more than 1,600 job seekers with disabilities through its Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP). Through WRP's complimentary CD-ROM database, employers can search for potential applicants by field of study, state or school, in disciplines ranging from computer sciences and business, to communications engineering and office administration. Searches generate candidate profiles, academic and demographic data, and contact information from applications recruited by the program from more than 180 colleges and universities in over 40 states and territories. The CD-ROM and additional information are available from www.wrpjobs.com, or by contacting ODEP at (202) 693-7880.
The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) is a toll-free information and referral service on job accommodations for people with disabilities. It can be reached at 1-800-526-7234 or at www.jan.wvu.edu.
EARN, a national toll-free telephone and electronic information referral service, helps employers locate and recruit qualified workers with disabilities. EARN can be reached at 1-866-Earn Now (1-866-327-6669) or via its Website (www.earnworks.com).
OTHER ISSUES
On April 29, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Alliance for Excellent Education held a press conference to announce the release of a new report, Left Out and Left Behind: NCLB and the American High School, which says “For high schools there is little or no federal support for students at this age level.” The report is available at www.all4ed.org.
The April 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that blood lead concentrations, even those below 10 µg per deciliter, are inversely associated with children's IQ scores at three and five years of age, and associated declines in IQ are greater at these concentrations than at higher concentrations. These findings suggest that more U.S. children may be adversely affected by environmental lead than previously estimated.
In May, LDA signed onto a letter to President Bush which pointed out that “Despite the growing body of evidence that mercury poisoning is much more widespread than previously believed, it's indisputable that your ‘Clear Skies’ would allow more mercury pollution from power plants than existing law.”
LDA News from Washington is published monthly by the Learning Disabilities Association of America, written by Washington Representative Justine Maloney, Jane Browning, Editor. Copies by mail are available free to LDA members upon request.
Learning Disabilities Association of America
4156 Library Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15234-1349
Phone (412) 341-1515 Fax (412) 344-0224
www.LDAAmerica.org
© 2004 LDA of America