Children & Youth Action Network
(CAN) Reports

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Judy B. Engelhard, CAN Coordinator for the Division for Learning Disabilities, provides brief reports for TeachingLD.org so that visitors can keep informed about important developments in policies affecting students with learning disabilities and their teachers. TeachingLD.org is pleased to offer this page as a place for people concerned with learning disabilities to keep up to date.

3 December 2004

IDEA REAUTHORIZATION UPDATE

On Friday, December 3, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004."

SUMMARY OF SELECTED ISSUES IN IDEA 2004

CEC has published its summary of selected issues in IDEA 2004. The summary addresses many issues but a few are of note to those concerned with learning disabilities. Specifically,

1. "The highly qualified provisions fail to recognize the multiple roles special education teachers fill in our schools and the complexity of the students these teachers serve. However, the language in IDEA attempts to directly tie special educators "highly qualified" requirements to the subject matter requirements for general educators in NCLB with little recognition for the integrity of special educators, special education licensure, the multiple settings in which special educators deliver services, the diverse roles within which special educators function, and the very diversity of the individuals for whom they work. This insensitivity will make implementation practically impossible."
2. "While H.R. 1350 authorizes Congress to appropriate money to achieve full funding, it still does not make IDEA an entitlement program, thereby guaranteeing mandatory full funding. Instead, IDEA funding is still at the whim of Congressional appropriators and will continue to financially burden State and local education agencies in educating students with disabilities."
3. "The new bill adds language related to determining whether a child has a specific learning disability stating that "...a local educational agency shall not be required to take into consideration whether a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, or mathematical reasoning." In addition, the new language states that, "in determining whether a child has a specific learning disability, a local educational agency may use a process that determines if the child responds to scientific, research-based intervention" as a part of the required evaluation procedures.
   
   "CEC recognizes that the use of the aptitude-achievement discrepancy model continues to be a controversial component in the identification of LD and shares those concerns. However, since there are no research-based alternatives that have been sufficiently validated at this time, CEC recommends that the Secretary establish a research priority and sufficient funds be allocated to validate psychometric, non-psychometric and "response-to-treatment" methods of identification. Particular attention should be given to the fidelity of the response-to treatment method on a large scale and its impact on disproportional representation of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds."
4. "H.R. 1350 deletes benchmarks and short-term objectives for children with disabilities, except for those children who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards. The new bill revises the provisions related to parental reporting eliminating the language requiring reporting "at least as often as parents are informed of their non-disabled children's progress" and reporting on "the extent to which that progress is sufficient to enable the child to achieve the goals by the end of the year." The new language requires a description of how the child's progress toward meeting the annual goals will be measured and when periodic reports on the progress the child is making toward meeting the annual goals (such as through the use of quarterly or other periodic reports, concurrent with the issuance of report cards) will be provided."

For the complete summary, see http://www.cec.sped.org/pp/IDEA_112304.pdf

To view the law, visit http://thomas.loc.gov and then enter H.R. 1350 in the "Bill Number" field. On the following screen, select option number seven, "H.R. 1350, As Agreed to or Passed by Both the House and Senate."

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES (OSERS) CONFIRMED

The Senate confirmed John H. Hager as the Department of Education's new Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Hager, the former Virginia Lieutenant Governor, will be responsible for drafting regulations to implement the reauthorized IDEA. He replaces Robert H. Pasternack who left the post in January 2004.

DLD ACTION

DLD continues to work with other organizations concerned with learning disabilities to craft regulation language to present to Hager and others. If you have concerns or issues that you would like to see addressed, please send an email to CAN@teachingld.org or to any Board member listed at http://www.teachingld.org/about/officers.html.

Judy B. Engelhard
CAN Coordinator, DLD