IDEA Update: Some Wins, Some Losses
In April, 2003, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce
held markup hearings on the "Improving Education Results for Children
with Disabilities Act of 2003," to reauthorize Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act. The results were mixed, according to the
NEA. Following is an NEA memo summarizing the actions:
Here's what we won:
Increased authorization levels: Rep. Porter (R-NV) offered an
amendment to raise the authorization levels for IDEA Part B to 11.07
billion in FY04 (up from $10.3b in original bill) and to 13.57 billion
in FY05 (up from $11.96 billion). This will represent an increase of
$4.7 billion over the next two years if appropriators abide by these
levels. These figures are also consistent with the levels called for
in the negotiations over the House Budget Resolution. If appropriators
stick to these levels, the federal share will rise to 21% in FY04 and
24% in FY05. Better than nothin' . . . .
Voucher amendment withdrawn! Rep. DeMint (R-SC) withdrew his
amendment claiming that if I had been given "this flier" (referring
to NEA's analysis), "I probably would voted against the amendment,
too, if the bill did all that this says it does." He stated that
he wanted to withdraw his amendment in the hopes that he could "further
clarify with Committee members what the purpose of his amendment is."
He claims that it is NOT a voucher bill because it merely allows federal
dollars to follow state dollars where "choice" programs already
exist. (Translation: Florida McKay program). He said the second purpose
of his amendment is to allow states to use Part D (professional development
and research funds) funds to research, design, and develop "innovative
programs" that afford parents more choices. (Translation: For all
states other than FL, here's some federal money to help you set up McKay
plans in your own state.) Going into the markup, we knew we had enough
votes to defeat the amendment, so it's likely that Mr. DeMint was encourage
withdrawing and saving his amendment for the floor. We will need to
really keep the heat on because much propaganda will be distributed
to Members of Congress, particularly to Republican members from their
party leadership. We have a special education voucher alert on the Legislative
Action Center page, so please encourage folks to go to nea.org/lac to
write their Representatives.
Enhanced Professional Development: NEA worked with Rep. Ron
Kind of Wisconsin to craft an amendment encouraging states to develop
more online professional development resources for teachers and paraprofessionals
about special education. We also suggested that Kind to include a requirement
that the Government Accounting Office issue a report determining what
online resources are currently available. His concern was particularly
about teachers and paras who are in rural areas who may not have access
to a lot of PD opportunities and can't take off work to travel large
distances to attend PD training or conferences.
Risk-sharing: NEA worked with Rep. Kind on an amendment dealing
with high-cost/low incidence students. His amendment sets aside up to
4% of the state's administration money to form risk-sharing pools with
states, LEAs, or other consortia to help alleviate the budgetary impact
that these particular students can have on a school or school district.
Further reduction of paperwork: Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA) offered
an amendment, which was accepted by voice vote, to state that if all
parties of an IEP team agree that a child no longer needs special education
services, a formal exit evaluation need not be conducted. This will
mean one less meeting and again, less time-consuming paperwork. CTA's
IDEA Task Force has been in close contact with California members --
particularly Davis and Woolsey, educating them about the priorities
for our members.
Partial Victories:
Raised the cap on State Grants (Part B) from 12% to 13.5%: NEA
worked with Committee Democrats to educate them about a cap that was
inserted into H.R. 1350, which would essentially tie the amount a state
can receive to the percentage of children ages 3-17 that are identified
for IDEA services. Under H.R. 1350, if that percentage exceeded 12%,
the state would get no additional federal funding for those additional
students. The cap was inserted as a way of reducing over-identification
of students as "special education students." Reps. Andrews
and Holt offered an amendment to eliminate the cap, which they debated
and withdrew. They then offered an amendment to raise the cap to 13.5%.
NEA's initial estimates were that 7 states would immediately lose funding
if the 12% were to have remained in place, and another 7 states might
be affected in the near future. By raising the cap to 13.5%, only two
states (RI and WV) are affected. These are key states for us because
Sen. Byrd, Ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, is
certainly not going to stand by and allow his state to lose funding.
Further, we have a very good relationship with Sen. Chafee, who should
also be helpful in the effort to completely eliminate the cap, once
we hit Conference.
Professional Development Money for All states: Rep. Wu offered
an amendment that NEA proposed to create a new formula-based funding
stream for professional development. (Only 42 states currently receive
PD money under the State Improvement Grant program). One of the specific
purposes of this program would be to expand professional development
about identification practices and techniques to ensure that children
are being properly referred (not over-identified or under-identified)
for special education services. Rep. Castle pledged to work with Rep.
Wu to see if some agreement could be reached prior to full consideration
on the House floor. Wu then withdrew his amendment. We'll continue to
push this.
Here's what we lost:
Mandatory Full funding of IDEA: Reps. Woolsey, Van Hollen, and
McCollum offered an amendment to make all new IDEA funding mandatory
and to ensure that IDEA is fully funded in six years. Debate began on
Wednesday and continued on Thursday morning. Vote: 22-26 Amendment Failed.
Full funding of NCLB
Rep. Van Hollen offered an amendment to fully fund up to the authorized
levels the No Child Left Behind Act. (This amendment would have actually
appropriated full funding over the life of ESEA).
Mandatory full funding of IDEA
Rep. Woolsey also offered the text of the Bass bill from last Congress
(H.R. 737 from 107th Congress) making all Part B funding mandatory over
the next five years to reach 40%. She noted that 6 Republicans and 6
Democrats currently on the committee were co-sponsors of this bill.
Vote: 22-26 Amendment failed.
Other items worthy of note:
Rep. Castle introduced a substitute bill that made the following changes
to the bill marked up in subcommittee last week:
- Requires states to have policies and procedures in place regarding
disproportionate representation of certain student groups in the overall
special education population.
- Requires 2%, instead of 1% in the original bill, of Part D funds
(professional development and research) to be directed to Historically
Black Colleges and Universities.
- Allows federal IDEA funds to be used for professional development
in identification techniques and training to reduce disproportionality.
- ncludes related service providers in the categories of education
personnel eligible for professional development.
- Amends the research section to require that the head of OSEP participate
in the planning and execution of the research in special education,
which is to be carried out by the new Institute of Education Sciences
(formerly OERI - Office of Education Research and Improvement).
- In the "cooling off" period proposed as a way to reduce
disputes, the bill clarifies that the school district has 15 days
to meet with the parents (rather than the whole IEP team) to initiate
a discussion about how to resolve the complaint(s).
These are all changes that were supported by NEA.
Amendment to Reinstate Manifestation Meetings and Functional Behavior
Assessments
Rep. Tierney offered an amendment to reinstate the requirement to have
a manifestation meeting and to conduct a functional behavior assessment.
(Note: NEA does support reinstatement of the requirement to conduct
functional behavioral assessments, as well as the creation of behavior
intervention plans). This issue will be a hot one in Conference. Vote:
22-26.
No harm done on "highly qualified"
We were concerned that there might be an amendment to further exacerbate
the problem of the "highly qualified" definition under the
new ESEA as it relates to special education teachers. Fortunately, no
amendment was offered. We are continuing to work with staff on this
and may have some news as early as next week about some potential help
on the Senate side. Stay tuned.
Motion to Report the Bill out of Committee
Vote: 29-19.
Next Steps:
The Senate is likely to introduce a bipartisan bill around 5/1 after
Members come back from the April recess. Full floor consideration by
the House could be scheduled as early as the week of 4/28.
Go to the Cyberlobby on the Members
Only site for more background on this topic and a direct e-mail
link to your congressional representative.
Go to Share
Your Photos for a picture of U.S. Rep. Ron Kind discussing IDEA
and other topics with WEAC members in his district.
Posted April 17, 2003