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.

17 September 2007

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (NCLB) REAUTHORIZATION

Recently, the House Education and Labor Committee released draft language for a reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently known as No Child Left Behind). To keep up with the action in the House go to

The draft legislation addresses numerous issues surrounding students with disabilities, including:

• All students with disabilities will be included in all assessments
• The "2%" regulations for those students who take modified assessments based on modified achievement standards will be codified
• Graduation rates for all students groups will be disaggregated
• Multiple measures of assessments are included
• Growth models are included
• The maximum "n size" for groups is capped at 30
• Response-to-Intervention is included as a possible intervention model or strategy for low performing schools
• Early intervention services are included as a possible component of a targeted assistance program
• States are required to engage in the development of a comprehensive plan to address the implementation of universal design for learning among items to support teaching and learning

Special Education Faces Challenges with Highly Qualified Provisions

In late August, 2007, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) released the report, "Implementing the No Child Left Behind Teacher Requirements" analyzing the provisions of the "highly qualified" requirement for all teachers. Overall, the report found that according to a majority of state and district school officials, highly qualified teacher requirements have made minimal impact on student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Furthermore, only 1/3 of states reported that they intend to reach full compliance with the highly qualified teacher requirements by the end of the 2006-2007 school year.
Special education teachers have the greatest challenge meeting the highly qualified provision, with 83% of states and 47% of districts reported to have difficulty complying. Many school districts are faced with a perpetual special education teacher shortage, which was cited as a major reason for the low compliance rate, along with the belief by many that the requirements for special educators are unclear and confusing, especially since many teach multiple subjects.  As a result, CEP recommends more flexibility regarding qualifications for special education teachers in the upcoming reauthorization of ESEA.      

The full CEP report is available at  www.cep-dc.org/

Supreme Court Sets Date for IDEA Case

The Supreme Court has set the date for hearing the Board of Education of the City School District of New York v. Tom F. ex rel. Gilbert F. case this fall. The case involves the issue of whether parents who enroll their children with disabilities in private schools have the rights to receive tuition reimbursement. Scheduled arguments are set to begin on October 1.

IEP RESOURCES FROM PROJECT FORUM

Project Forum aims to facilitate improved services to children and youth with disabilities by gathering and sharing information that supports changes to policy and practice at the national, state and local levels. Here is a resource related to Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s).

• Seven Step Process to Creating Standards-based IEP’s and Standards-Based Individualized Education Program Examples
• http://projectforum.org/docs/SevenStepProcesstoCreatingStandards-basedIEPs.pdf
• http://projectforum.org/docs/Standards-BasedIEPExamples.pdf  

GET INVOLVED AND SIGN-UP TO RECEIVE POLICY UPDATES

If you have specific recommendations related to policy or legislative issues that you wish DLD to consider, please let me know via TeachingLD's contact form; it is helpful if you provide examples that illustrate how students with learning disabilities or their teachers are affected. You are encouraged to get involved by visiting the CEC Legislative Action Center and write your members of Congress on special education issues. If you wish to receive weekly updates from the CEC Policy Unit, please write to me via TeachingLD's contact form, and put "policy updates" in the subject line.

Judy B. Engelhard
DLD/Public Policy Committee Chair & CAN Coordinator
http://www.teachingld.org/can_reports/