Hello All
I hope many of you are aware that the senate is going to take up S.1248 the re-authorization of IDEA next week. I had a long discussion with Indiana Senator Bayh's office this week and I can assure you all of our Senators in DC do not understand our concerns. Monday May 3, 2004 has been scheduled as a senate call in date and I am asking each of you to get as many people as possible to call their Senator's. I am pasting in the info from the NDSS website that can assist you in your talking points and how to contact your senators. Please CALL them or FAX them do not mail or email them at this point. We must get their attention on this issue. I hope the info below answers any questions you may have. If not please feel free to contact me.
Have a great day.
Jeff, Hubby to Jan and BigDaddy to Nash.
The most recent word from the Senate is that S. 1248 will go to the floor for a vote in early May. We can not allow our children's education to be threatened by a reauthorization bill for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that diminishes their rights!
The Senate IDEA reauthorization bill, S. 1248, is a much better bill than the House reauthorization bill, HR 1350, in large part because it was developed in a bipartisan manner. In spite of the hard work that went into S. 1248, many important provisions from current law were eliminated. NDSS has worked hard to correct the main problems with S. 1248 and we appreciate that many parents helped us by writing letters to their Senators. Some issues have been addressed but many remain unresolved. In particular, NDSS has been strongly advocating that S. 1248, be revised to keep short-term objectives as a required element of the IEP and to keep current law with respect to the "stay put" rules in the discipline provisions (the "stay put" rules give a student the right to remain in the current placement during the appeal of certain disciplinary decisions).
Since this is an election year and the schedule for the House and Senate is so full, we are in a crucial time period where the bill will either move forward or be dropped until 2005 when the reauthorization process will start over again. This timetable makes it highly unlikely that our concerns with S. 1248 will be addressed. As a result we are forced to oppose the bill and ask that Senators vote NO on S.1248. When the reauthorization process begins again, the House and the Senate will have to develop new bills; the time will have run out for H.R. 1350 and S. 1248.
At the same time as IDEA is being weakened, the pressure on Congress to change the No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) in ways that would weaken accountability for students with disabilities is building. Some groups do not believe that students with disabilities can and should be a part of the same accountability system as their non-disabled peers. These groups point to the low assessment scores of students with disabilities as evidence to support their position. Why are these scores low? If we do not have a strong IDEA that is fully funded and implemented then our children will not get the supports and services they need to access the general education curriculum. How do we expect students with disabilities to achieve if they do not even have access to the curriculum? In addition, better assessments must be developed. In order to see widespread improvement in special education, we need to ensure that students with disabilities retain their individual rights under IDEA and remain part of a strong group accountability system at the state, local and school level.
ACTION STEPS:
Contact your Senators and urge them to vote against S. 1248! Tell them:
Partisan politics with respect to IDEA and accountability is jeopardizing our children's education.
You will be watching to make sure they vote no on S. 1248.
The best way for states to improve the performance of students with disabilities is to fully implement IDEA 1997.
You oppose many provisions in S.1248, especially the elimination of the short-term objectives requirement and the changes to the "stay put" rules for discipline. These provisions are critical to educational improvement for students with disabilities.
There must be mandatory full funding for IDEA.
You can contact your Senators in many ways:
Use the sample letter in the advocacy section of the NDSS website (by adding your zip code to the Take Action! Input box above) or draft your own letter and send it from the website.
Monday, May 3rd is a Senate call-in day to oppose S.1248. Please call your Senators in Washington on May 3rd to maximize the impact of your phone call. You can find the telephone contact information under "elected officials" in the advocacy section of the website (
http://capwiz.com/ndss/dbq/officials/).
Visit the staff at the local offices and bring your child!
