CORE SPECIAL EDUCATION RIGHTS ARE IN JEOPARDY – PLEASE ACT NOW
In 1975, after courts said students with disabilities have a constitutional right to an appropriate, integrated education, Congress passed a law to help fund special education. Now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), it protects basic rights for persons with disabilities from birth to young adulthood. Though no state has fully complied, case-by-case enforcement by parents and attorneys has protected individual students, and encouraged systemic improvements. A stream of administrators has recently lobbied hard against IDEA obligations, falsely claiming to represent "educators." While many parent and professional organizations have defended IDEA, we are not yet a political force to be reckoned with; indeed, actions are being taken without a single hearing. The House of Representatives approved HR 1350, a radical bill which removes longstanding rights. SB 1248 was developed as a bipartisan compromise in the Senate HELP Committee, but amendments are being considered which would bring it much closer to the House version. The Senate’s timetable is unclear. We must act by early October. Contact your senators and key senators below, preferably by fax and personal visits to legislators or staffers. Tell your story. Explain that IDEA needs to be obeyed and funded, not gutted. Any changes need to be considered carefully, by listening to knowledgeable witnesses at hearings. Key points are:
* Emergency powers to ensure school safety already exist. "Discipline" is becoming a code word for exclusion of students with disabilities from regular classrooms, even for minor, disability-related breaches of school rules. School systems need to increase their ability to provide behavioral supports, with segregation remaining a last resort.
* IDEA ‘97 and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) were intended to help students with disabilities learn and become productive adults. Requirements for scientifically based strategies, access to general curriculum, and a focus on achievement are paying off in districts that comply. Congress should reject current efforts to weaken IDEA and to remove NCLB accountability requirements for children with disabilities.
* "Paperwork" and team meetings are critical: annual goals, short-term objectives, and ongoing collaboration among parents, regular educators and special educators are necessary to monitor progress and ensure timely revision of approaches that are not working.
* The availability of reasonable attorney’s fees for parent-child attorneys who show that school districts have violated federal law is critical. Without this provision, many families could not get representation, no matter how severely their child’s rights had been violated. Without IDEA’s fee-shifting provisions, families with resources would do better to fund services privately, forfeiting their child’s right to a free public education. There is no litigation explosion: the Government Accounting Office has recently reported that there are 5 hearings per 10,000 special education students nationally, and 3 per 10,000 in California. Parents’ access to counsel does encourage districts to behave lawfully – that is a good thing.
SENATE FAXES: CA: (Barbara Boxer fax 213-894-5042 & Senator Dianne Feinstein fax 202-228-3954); National Republicans: Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) (202-224-0776); Senator Lamar Alexander (TN) (202) 228-3398; Bill Frist (TN), 202-228-1264; Jeff Sessions (AL) 202 224-3149; Lindsey Graham (SC) 202-224-3808; Mke DeWine (OH) 202-224-6519; John Warner (VA) 202-224-6295; Orrin Hatch (UT) 202-224-6331. National Democrats: Hillary Clinton (NY) 202-228-0282; Jeff Bingaman (NM), 202-224-2852; Dianne Feinstein (CA) 202-228-3954; Independent -- James Jeffords (VT) 202 228-0776. FOR MORE INFO, go to dredf.org.