CONGRESS BACK IN SESSION: The RRN has been quiet as IDEA lay dormant but not forgotten over the summer. We hope our subscribers had opportunities to speak with their members about the issues
that concern parents and advocates.
We have no definite information on a timetable, but we anticipate that IDEA will return to the
front burner after the appropriations bills are dealt with in the House and the Senate this month.
S. 1248 will go to the Senate floor, and the problems in that bill have not gone away over the
summer. In addition, new concerns have arisen.
UPDATE ON FUNDING: The Senate agreed to a $2.2 billion increase for Part B IDEA funding for next
year. Senators added $1.2 billion to the proposed $1 billion increase for fiscal year 2004 during
debate of the entire Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill. But the
funding increase is still vulnerable, because the House leaders and the President need to agree
with the proposal. The House appropriations bill funds IDEA with a $1 billion increase, so there's
a $1.2 billion difference between the House and Senate plans.

NEW THREAT: We have heard that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) will introduce an amendment to change No
Child Left Behind (NCLB) to exclude children with disabilities from the Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) calculation if a school is determined to be failing because of the scores of students with
disabilities. General education groups such as the NEA, we are told, support this initiative.
Note: Such an amendment could be added to any bill, as it applies to NCLB rather than to IDEA.
There is tremendous pressure being brought to bear on Congress and the White House to eliminate
compliance requirements and documentation. Powerful lobbies such as the National Conference of
State Legislatures are making these arguments. We must make it clear that the grassroots is paying
attention and that we want our schools to be both fully funded and accountable under the law for
their services and performance.
WHAT TO DO: We urge you to call Sen. Alexander's office, inquire about this amendment, and register
your opposition to it. It is discriminatory and would change NCLB to "Leave Children with
Disabilities Behind." If schools don't have to count the scores of our children, they will not be
held accountable for educating them and will have no incentive to comply with the law and provide
services. Schools also won't have to count the test scores of students who were not in the school
for the entire academic year, giving them another incentive to move our children to alternative
placements. Copy the members of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee
(see below) as well as DREDF at preserveIDEA@dredf.org or fax at 510-841-8645.
.

OTHER ANTICIPATED AMENDMENTS: Although actual amendments have not yet been presented we believe
that there will be several proposals:
1. Mandatory full funding for IDEA, a bill sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
2. A limitation on attorneys' fees similar to the Case (D-HI) amendment that passed in the House
and is now part of HR 1350, making it more difficult for minority and low-income families to obtain
legal advice and representation.
3. A voucher amendment modeled on the Florida McKay Scholarship program (see the analysis that
DREDF co-authored with People for the America Way (available at
http://www.dredf.org/press_releases/Vouchers.pdf).
We may also see amendments concerning paperwork reduction demonstration projects.
WHAT TO DO: Parents and advocates should write to their respective Senators-and Representatives in
preparation for Conference-stating your views on each of these issues and on any other issues of
concern to you. The important thing is to call, write, email, fax: make our voices heard so that
we are not drowned out by school boards, administrators, and bureaucrats and so that we keep the
focus on services and protections for our children. See earlier RRN Briefings for discussions of
vouchers and attorney fee caps. Please copy members of the Senate HELP Committee as well as DREDF.
S. 1248: We remain concerned about several provisions in S. 1248. These are in the bill as it came
out of the HELP Committee, prior to floor amendments. This is not an exhaustive analysis of the
bill. Rather, we emphasize a few key provisions that disenfranchise children with disabilities.
While the Senate bill vastly improves on the House bill, HR 1350, it still attacks some of the core
principles of current special education law.
What we like: provisions for alternate assessments, positive behavioral supports, school to life
transitions, and personnel standards.
What we don't like:
* Elimination of short-term objectives and benchmarks from IEPs: S. 1248 follows HR 1350 in
removing the requirement to include short-term objectives and benchmarks from IEPs. Current law
stipulates that the IEP contain "a statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or
short-term objectives, related to (I) meeting the child's needs that result from the child's
disability to enable the child to be involved in and progress in the general curriculum; and (II)
meeting each of the child's other educational needs that result from the child's disability
(614(d)A(ii). The Senate bill requires quarterly reports concurrent with report cards that state
progress toward IEP goals and objectives. But this provision does not make clear how progress will
be measured, what it will be measured against, or who is responsible for measuring and reporting on
a child's progress toward annual goals. If the requirements for students with disabilities to be
counted in NCLB are also dropped, parents will have nowhere to go to get information about their
children's performance.
This change removes parents from the planning process and significantly dilutes parents' ability to
keep track of their child's educational development. It makes it more difficult for schools and
parents to monitor and measure students progress. It not only removes one of the pillars of IEP
accountability, but in the process this provision may actually increase the paperwork requirements
of IDEA.
There may still be an opportunity to return short-term objectives to the Senate bill if enough
pressure is brought to bear on Senators from parents and advocates.
* "OPPORTUNITY TO CURE"-EARLY RESOLUTION: DREDF calls this new provision an "opportunity to
intimidate." It requires all parents who file for due process to go to a meeting to explain their
complaint. The purported reason for this is to see if resolution can be reached without going to
hearing. Yet parents file for due process only as a last resort, and this provision does not allow
for attorney fees for these meetings.
* Multi-year IEPs: Both House and Senate bills make available the option of a three-year IEP.
However, S. 1248 permits that option only for students between the ages of 18 and 22.
* Discipline: S. 1248 alters the process by which students with disabilities can be disciplined for
various violations of school code of conduct. While a stark improvement over the House bill, the
Senate bill permits schools to remove certain students from their current placement for specific
violations even if the violation was a result of the child's disability.
The Senate Bill removes the requirement to conduct a manifestation determination for students who
are removed for up to 45 days (school days rather than calendar days, as in current law, which
increases the length of removal from 6 weeks to 9 weeks) based on allegations of
possession/sale/distribution of drugs and possession of weapons, as well as the new category of
students who have committed a serious bodily injury.

The Senate Bill also eliminates the "stay put" provisions of current law. Under the proposal, if
a student with a disability is excluded for more than 10 school days for violating school rules,
and the IEP team determines that the behavior is not a manifestation of their disability, the
student has no right to "stay put" in their current educational placement even if their parents
challenge the decision by requesting a hearing. This is a significant weakening of protections for
classified students, and may well lead to the result that students with disabilities who break a
minor school rule may be out of school for months or even years.
* Statute of limitations: There is no statute of limitations on due process complaints in the
current IDEA, although many states have such statues. S. 1248 requires that complaints be filed
within two years of when a parent or public agency "knew or should have known" about an alleged
violation, with exceptions for cases in which the local education agency (1) fails to provide prior
written notices or procedural safeguards, (2) falsely represents that it was attempting to resolve
the problem, or (3) withholds information from parents.
WHAT TO DO: Write to both Senators in your state and send copies of your letters to members of the
HELP Committee and to DREDF. Tell your stories.
GOOGLE: DREDF has been awarded a grant from Google that gives us an ad for our website when users
"google" a number of keywords such as "disability rights."