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By Elizabeth Millard
The way special education programs operate could significantly
change should a bipartisan bill meet with approval by the House
and President George W. Bush.
In June, the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)
Committee passed legislation that updates the nation's special education
law. The legislation, put together by Senators Edward M. Kennedy
(D- Mass.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), re-authorizes the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act of 1975 (IDEA). Under the bill,
school districts could see less paperwork for special education
teachers and have improved conflict resolution and mediation, as
well as reduced litigation. The legislation aims to improve disciplinary
action, an issue that has prompted conflict in the past from both
special education advocates and school districts.
"This reauthorization is designed to ensure that special education
resources are directed to help children with disabilities obtain
the same opportunity to succeed as all other students," Gregg says.
"I'm confident that we are meeting that goal with [this] bill."
The updated legislation includes many changes to the original
IDEA, especially in the area of discipline. It mandates that parents
and schools address concerns with the use of alternative dispute
resolution, and have access to mediation resources at any time.
The bill also requires that schools consider whether a child's
behavior is the result of his/her disability when considering disciplinary
action.
For those children who are disciplined, a school would have to
do a behavioral assessment and then provide appropriate preventative
treatment. Gregg says, "It improves discipline by simplifying the
procedures used by school districts and improves parental involvement
in the education process."
When the special education law was last rewritten in 1997, there
was debate in Congress over the issue of how to regulate schools'
authority in the area of discipline. The bill's supporters hope
that with this bipartisan compromise, those tussles can be avoided.
The bill also includes ways to reduce the misidentification of
non-disabled children by allowing for development of new approaches
to determine whether students have specific learning disabilities.
Funds would be included in the legislation for this area in order
to hire specialists who could suggest effective strategies for prevention
of misidentification.
Areas of the bill needing clarification included finance and funding.
When IDEA was originally passed, the federal government was supposed
to pay 40 percent of the cost of special education, but that amount
has decreased to about 18 percent. In small rural states like New
Hampshire, the costs of making up the difference can present a burden
to school districts. The new bill would prevent slowly dwindling
federal money by simplifying grant funding and mandating that it
be predictable in future years.
If approved, the bill would govern the program for the next five
years. However, whether it will pass remains to be determined. According
to Joshua Shields, a spokesperson in Gregg's office, the legislation
is currently in the Senate, awaiting full approval there. "Any difference
between the bills must be ironed out," Shields says. "Then it must
be signed by the President before it goes into effect. It's hard
to say how quickly all that will happen."
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