LEGISLATION
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
COURT CASES
LEGISLATION
Congress is in recess. The House will reconvene on January 15, the Senate on January 22.
Bills passed before Congress recessed include:
APPROPRIATIONS - A $555 billion omnibus spending bill (HR 2764) was passed by the Senate on December 18, by the House on December 19.and sent to the President for his signature. Congress passed another continuing resolution (HJ Res. 72) keeping the government open until the President signed the bill, which he did on December 26. The bill Increases overall education funding by $1.94 billion (+3.4%). This includes a $1.1 billion (+4.6%) increase in NLCB programs; a $259 million (+ 17.3%) increase in IDEA funding; and restoration of much of the funding for Career and Technical Education. Funding for the National Children's Study is $111 million.
MEDICARE/MEDICAID/SCHIP - The Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) Extension Act of 2007 (S 2499) passed by Congress and signed into law on December 29 includes:
- A six month 0.5% increase in Medicare physician reimbursements, averting a 10% decrease scheduled to take effect on January 1, 1008
- A six month moratorium on the proposed regulations limiting rehabilitation options and school based services/transportation.
- An extension of the SCHIP program through March 31, 2009 which provides sufficient funding to avoid funding shortfalls in 2008
On December 28, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final regulation stipulating that schools may not bill Medicaid for certain school-based administrative and transportation activities. The regulations were to go into effect on February 26, 2008. However, the exact status of the regulation is unclear because of the bill signed on December 29 which imposes a six month moratorium on any regulatory guidance concerning payment for school based administration and transportation.
NEW NAME - Congress passed and the President signed into law S.2484 which renames the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Bills Awaiting Action in the Second Sesssion of the 110th Congress:
THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES RESTORATION ACT (H.R. 3195; S. 1881) would override recent Supreme Court decisions which have seriously eroded the rights of people with disabilities under the ADA, by allowing employers to say either a person is too disabled to do a job or is not disabled enough to be protected by the law.
REAUTHORIZATION OF NCLB (ESEA)- The NEA website lists current bills on the reauthorization of ESEA/NCLB, which includes those supported by NEA (41 in the Senate and 87 in the House), those opposed by NEA and those on which NEA has no position. On January 7, 2008, President Bush said if Congress doesn't reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, he will make as many changes as he can on his own. He also said that if Congress does renew the law but weakens it in the process, he'd “strongly oppose it and veto it”
The TOXIC RIGHT TO KNOW PROTECTION ACT (S 595. H.R.1055) would undo reporting requirement roll-backs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implemented in a January 2007 rule change, which would allow companies to release ten time more pollution before filing detailed reports and create an unprecedented exemption for reporting low-level disposals of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs), including lead and mercury.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
APPOINTMENTS - Dr Tracy Justesen has been appointed Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Related Services.
REGULATIONS FOR PART C (EARLY CHILDHOOD) OF IDEA may not come out until late summer 2008.
THE 27th ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF IDEA consists of two volumes. Volume 1 focuses on the children and students being served under IDEA. Topics covered include trends in numbers and percentages of infants, toddlers, preschool, and school-age children served; educational environments of preschool-age children; declassification of elementary school-age students; and characteristics of secondary students served for emotional disturbance. Volume 2 contains state-level data profiles. The report is available at: http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/osep/2005/parts-b-c/index.html
GROWTH MODEL NOW AVAILABLE TO ALL STATES - The Department of Education announced that all states that meet federal criteria can now use a growth model to measure student achievement instead of the current Adequate Yearly Progress system. The Department's press release, details about the pilot project and the letter sent to all State School Officers can be found at http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/growthmodel/proficiency.html
RIGHTS OF QUALIFIED STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES TO ACCESS ACCELERATED PROGRAMS - On December 26. the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued a policy letter stating that Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability in programs or activities receiving Federal financial assistance) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by entities of State and local government.) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act require that qualified students with disabilities be given the same opportunities to compete for and benefit from accelerated programs and classes as are given to students without disabilities. To read more go to: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-20071226.html
GRANT TO PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC BOOKS "The Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education has awarded Bookshare a $32 million five-year grant to dramatically expand the Bookshare collection and provide all U.S. students with qualifying print disabilities free access to the service.
Students of any age, in K-12 and beyond, can use the entire Bookshare.org collection of accessible electronic books and the software for reading the books. Bookshare is working with publishers, authors and technology companies to gain access to books in digital formats that can be converted to DAISY (digital talking book format). Copyrighted books are only available for download in the specialized formats of digital Braille (BRF) and the digital talking book format (DAISY), and are only available to people with disabilities who have provided certification of disability.
A tool for Microsoft Word, to be released as a downloadable plug-in at no charge early next year, will enable the translation of millions of Open XML documents into DAISY XML, the lingua franca of the globally accepted standard for digital talking. See "Microsoft and DAISY Help Enhance Reading Experience for People with Print”.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
The President was expected to nominate Neil Romano of Maryland, to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy.
COURT CASES
SUPREME COURT TO HEAR ADA CASE - The Supreme Court will hear the case of Huber vs Wal-Mart in the spring of 2009. Huber was an order filer earning $13 an hour when she was hurt in an on-the-job accident. She applied for a job as a router, which paid $12.50, but the job went to another employee Wal-Mart considered more qualified. Huber was offered a job which paid $6.50 an hour. The issue is whether Wal-Mart is required to provide Huber with an equivalent job after she could no longer perform her job due to a disability or whether Wal-Mart simply had to allow her to compete for an equivalent job.
FEDERAL APPEALS COURT ON FUNDING FOR NCLB - On January 7, the Sixth Circuit federal Court of Appeals ruled that the No Child Left Behind Act is violating the Spending Clause of the Constitution by requiring states and school districts to spend their own funds to comply with the law. The lawsuit, filed by the National Education Association, nine school districts, and nine NEA state affiliates, does not challenge the goals of the law or call for its dismantling. Instead it wants to make clear that if states and districts cannot fully comply with all the law's regulations and mandates due to lack of federal funds, they cannot be penalized by the Department of Education.
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. |
