Our Children Left Behind: IDEA Re-authorization ALERT
SEPTEMBER 23, 2004


OCLB's CONFERENCE COMMITTEE GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The news is out!! Congress will act on amending the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] yet this year. The Senate already has appointed its Health, Education, Labor and Pension [HELP] Committee members to the Conference Committee. The House will likely appoint its Conference Committee members yet this week. Our window for action is narrow. We all must move fast.

Over the past 18 months we have outlined our concerns about various proposed amendments. As we understand the process, the Conference Committee will be free to fashion language combining or ignoring the words contained in H.R.1350 and what was S.1248. We suggest that everyone continue to voice the concerns that have been expressed throughout the reauthorization process. We also suggest that you review and use materials from the Our Children Left Behind Web site as well as other family-friendly Web sites. The Conference Committee members need to hear our continuing concerns.

We propose, too, that you share the general principles we have listed below with Conference Committee members. We wrote these principles at the request of those who asked us to explain what drove our opposition to certain proposed amendments. The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education observed in its final report that IDEA "must retain the legal and procedural safeguards necessary to guarantee a 'free appropriate public education' to students with disabilities." The following principles are intended to give life to the Commission's finding.

Here then are the principles – the measuring sticks – against which we believe the Conference Committee must measure any proposed amendment language. We will support any amendments that satisfy these principles. We must, however, oppose those amendments that violate these principles. We believe these principles best protect the fundamental civil rights created in IDEA, while advancing inclusive education, fostering parent-professional partnerships and maximizing individualized educational programs for students with disabilities.

Promote school-wide and community-wide recognition and awareness of disability issues. For too long, disability issues and people with disabilities were hidden from public view. IDEA amendments must keep disability rights and issues in the public eye rather than hiding them again from public view.

Increase opportunities for students with disabilities to receive educational services in fully inclusive settings. Disability is a normal part of the human condition. Students with disabilities may have skilled-based needs that require unique approaches. IDEA amendments must ensure that students who have unique learning needs – especially behavioral needs – have those needs addressed in inclusive settings with supports rather than creating reasons to provide services in segregated settings.

Strengthen the principle that needs-based services required by IDEA are provided to equalize educational opportunity for students with disabilities. Too often, special education services are described as add-ons or extras that take away from general education resources. In fact, the opposite is true. Special education provides the opportunity to equalize the educational outcomes for students with disabilities.

Preserve or enhance for students and parents the participatory and procedural rights in the IEP development process that exist in IDEA '97. The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education identified improving parent participation as a core objective. IDEA amendments must respect the parents' desire to be central team participants by increasing rather than reducing opportunities for parent education and parent involvement in core decision-making processes.

Preserve or enhance fundamental due process rights for students and parents, as they exist in IDEA '97. The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education, as noted in our introduction, calls for retaining legal and procedural safeguards. Due process remains the spring that keeps the special education system ticking smoothly.

Promote IDEA educational opportunities for parents as part of the amendment implementation process. The procedural and subject matter knowledge bases rest in the heads and hands of the educators. Parents must be offered the opportunity to participate along side educators in learning about changes to existing special education law.

Foster the development and strengthening of the parent-professional partnership. Partnership embraces both balance of power and respect issues. Any IDEA amendments must seek to create partnership opportunities while respecting and maintaining the rights of the parents and the educators. Partnerships do not develop where the balance of power is tipped too far one way or the other.

Preserve or enhance data collection and other accountability measures that provide meaningful indicators of how particular programs and strategies are working for individual students. Accountability remains a core need for IDEA, especially now in the world of No Child Left Behind. Accountability measures, like educational programs, must be individualized to permit evaluation of individual students and their outcomes while at the same time emphasizing development of best practices. Data collection and accountability are also vital in the behavioral domain.

We hope these principles give some backbone and definition to the concerns we have raised as the IDEA reauthorization process has lurched forward. Once again we parents, students, advocates and consumer-based organizations must come forward to educate the Conference Committee on why IDEA remains the most important law on the books for 6.5 million students who have disabilities. In the days and weeks ahead, we urge you to refer to these principles and to use them to compel a Conference Committee outcome that truly does improve special education rather than gutting the law as we know it.

Our Children Left Behind will be more active over these next weeks as the process moves forward. We cannot afford to waste a minute. Now, more than ever, our children's futures clearly and preciously hang in the balance. If ever we are going to have an effect, it is now. We cannot win for our children if we do not all act as if this is an emergency. This IS an emergency.

In solidarity for all children,


The Our Children Left Behind Team
Tricia & Calvin Luker, Shari Krishnan, Sandy Strassman Alperstein, and Debi Lewis
parentvolunteer@ourchildrenleftbehind.com

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW