IDEA requires public school systems to develop appropriate Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) for each child. The specific special education and related services outlined in each IEP reflect the individualized needs of each student.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal special education law. IDEA is a law that is aimed toward educating children with disabilities throughout the nation. IDEA laws and regulations direct the special education process and promote the implementation of assistive technology as a mean to educate disabled children. These are the new regulations of the IDEA law:
All special education teachers must have an elementary education and special education certification. Those teaching above the elementary grade level must exhibit the ability to teach at the appropriate instructional level for their students. On the other hand, new special education teachers who teach multiple subjects must meet the NCLB "highly qualified" standard in any one of the subject areas namely language arts, math, or science in order to be hired. These teachers have two years from the date of employment to take advantage of the HOUSE to demonstrate competence in other core subject areas. Experienced special education teachers who teach multiple subjects can take advantage of the HOUSE to demonstrate competence in other main subject areas.
The only special education ESPs who are subject to NCLB's "highly qualified" requirements are those working in schools where Title I money is used for school-wide programs and who are helping to deliver core academic content. If the ESP is a personal assistant and does not perform instructional tasks, he or she is exempt from meeting the NCLB "highly qualified" requirements.
100% (compared to 75% under IDEA '97) of all State Improvement Grant money (found in Part D of IDEA; $91 million for this fiscal year) must be geared to professional development. States must use 90 percent of these funds to carry out at least one of the following:
1) mentoring, team teaching, reduced class schedules and caseloads, and intensive professional development;
2) ensuring that academic and functional standards or assessments are aligned with state content standards as well as professional development;
3) encouraging collaborative and consultative models for early intervention, special education, and related services;
4) encouraging and supporting the training of special education and regular education teachers and administrators to effectively use and integrate technology;
5) expanding professional development activities;
6) developing and implementing initiatives to promote the recruitment and retention of highly qualified special education teachers, particularly initiatives that have been proven effective in recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers;
7) developing programs designed to improve the quality of early intervention personnel, including paraprofessionals and primary referral sources; and
8) training personnel, including administrators, about how to write effective IEPs and conduct effective and efficient IEP meetings.
The bill also includes a scholarship program to recruit people to enter the special education teaching profession in exchange for at least 2 years of service as a special education teacher.
The law allows 15 states to design paperwork reduction plans without sacrificing essential civil
rights of students. The Secretary of Education will be required two years after the date of
enactment to issue a report to Congress about whether this program has indeed reduced paperwork for educators, increased collaboration between IEP team members, improved outcomes, enhanced longer-term planning, and enhanced satisfaction of family members.
It also allows 15 states to offer voluntary three-year IEPs (to coincide with natural transition points) to all students, provided that there are regular Reports to Congress on the effectiveness in reducing paperwork burden on teachers, increasing collaboration between IEP team members, improving outcomes, enhancing longer-term planning, and ensuring satisfaction of family members.
It also allows 15 states to offer voluntary three-year IEPs (to coincide with natural transition points) to all students, provided that there are regular Reports to Congress on the effectiveness in reducing paperwork burden on teachers, increasing collaboration between IEP team members, improving outcomes, enhancing longer-term planning, and ensuring satisfaction of family members.
Use of Early Intervention Strategies
Local school districts can use up to 15 percent of their funds for early intervening services for students (in k-12) before they are identified as needing special education services (i.e., prior to an evaluation for IDEA eligibility). School districts are allowed to implement new approaches other than IQ-achievement discrepancy model to determine whether students have specific learning disabilities. Schools may still use the IQ discrepancy model as a part of eligibility determinations, so long as it is not the sole determinant of eligibility. Early intervention and preschool special education programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities, allows states to create a system that gives parents the option of having their child continue early intervention services until the age of five. The law emphasizes that infants and toddlers who are abused, neglected, drug-exposed, or have experienced family violence, have to be referred for early intervention.
Discipline Procedures
Students with disabilities may be removed from the classroom for up to 10 days for any violation of a school code of conduct, in the same manner and to the same extent that a non-disabled student would be. (In other words, equal punishment for the same offense). A manifestation determination would have to be conducted within 10 days to determine whether the behavior was the result of the child's disability or whether the behavior was a "direct result of the local educational agency's failure to implement the IEP."Schools can still automatically remove a student with a disability for up to 45 days for carrying drugs or a weapon to school, but a new category of offense has been added to this 45-day automatic removal provision. A student with a disability who causes "serious bodily harm" can now be automatically removed for up to 45 days from the classroom regardless of whether the behavior was the result of the disability. The requirement to conduct functional behavioral assessments and implement or modify existing behavioral intervention plans was put back in and applies to students for whom the behavior in question is deemed to be manifestations of their disabilities AND who are removed from the classroom for more than 10 days. The final bill also allows schools to take into account on a case-by-case basis "any unique circumstances . . . when determining whether to order a change in placement for a child with a disability who violates a code of student conduct." (This may be the biggest change in the discipline provisions -- it is designed to grant limited exceptions to the "stay put" rule. NEA will work with USED to include helpful guidance language on how this might be helpful for ensuring the safety of NEA members and students in the classroom.) Finally, there is a new grant program (a high priority of NEA's) to help states and LEAs create and/or enhance high quality alternative education programs and/or sites. The law requires that schools continue providing services that enable students who are disciplined to participate in the general curriculum and meet their IEP goals.
Eligibility provisions: A child cannot be determined to be eligible for IDEA services or be deemed a "child with a disability"-if the "determinant factor" is that he or she 1) lacked "appropriate reading instruction;" 2) lacked instruction in math; or 3) is a student with limited English proficiency.
IEP-related provisions: Schools can provide short-term objectives for students who take alternate assessments based upon alternate achievement standard
State and local funding issues: It establishes a seven-year (including this fiscal year) path toward fulfilling the federal government's 30-year promise to pay 40% of the costs of educating students with special needs. (NOTE: The authorization level for 2005 is $12.36 billion; yet, the amount Congress just appropriated was $10.68 billion - or, $1.68 billion short)
Due to the federal government's failure to live up to its promise, states and local communities are making up the difference. The new IDEA law will allow local schools, as the federal government moves closer to paying 40 percent of special education costs, to redirect a share of their own, local resources for other educational purposes-in other words, shift them to their general operating budgets for education.
It establishes a state-level risk pool fund to assist local educational agencies in providing FAPE to disabled children with the greatest needs ("low-incidence/high-cost").
Disproportionality: (Excerpt from Conference Chairman Rep. John Boehner's (R-OH) summary of the IDEA bill) -- "Reducing over-identification/misidentification of non-disabled children, including minority youth. A disproportionate number of minority students are wrongly placed in special education rather than provided intensive educational interventions and positive behavioral interventions…. The bill will require districts with significant over-identification of minority students to operate early intervening programs that work to reduce over-identification; reduce the over-reliance on the "IQ-discrepancy" model for identification; introduce a "response to intervention" model that identifies specific learning disabilities before the students are failing at grade level; and encourage greater use of programs that rely on positive behavioral interventions and supports."
Litigation Reduction: The law creates a new "opportunity to resolve" problems before a due process complaint is formally filed. School districts will have 15 days in which to convene a "resolution session" and may not bring a district attorney unless the parents are represented by counsel. The school district then has another 15 days to attempt to cure the problems cited by the parents.
Home-schooled children: Local schools do not need to conduct an evaluation or create an IEP if parents state that they will refuse both the evaluation and services.
Medication: The bill prohibits schools from forcing children to be medicated as a condition of attending school, receiving an evaluation, or receiving services.
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