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What would you change about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? Special education law is a lot like the weather in Chicago, it changes frequently. In fact I have frequently commented on these pages about the "cycle" of special ed law. The statute was enacted, followed by federal regulations, followed by state regs, followed by hearing officer decisions followed by court decisions, (both trial and appellate court opinions)(we even have ten by the Supremes). Then the statute, IDEA, is reauthorized and changed and the whole cycle repeats until we are pretty comfortable with the law, then the process repeats itself again. As I have said before, if certainty or red letter, hornbook law is your thing, you may not like special ed law. (There must be a Jeff Foxworthy joke in there somewhere, but I can't quite think of it!)
Reauthorization of IDEA is again overdue, but with Congress having other stuff on its plate, it may still take a while. But now is the time to start getting ready. Be prepared to let your senators and congressmen know how you feel about changes to this law when the issue becomes ripe. The organized interest groups are already making their positions known. I plan to share what you mention on this blog with the Congress, so please let me know what you think.
In addition, our ongoing poll reflects this question. I have identified ten of the issues frequently mentioned as areas of IDEA that should be changed. Interestingly only five vote separate the top five categories ( the range is 35 to 30 votes). The other five categories are lagging behind, but it is still anybody's game. Be sure to vote; register your opinion; exercise the franchise. Note these polls are not scientific or anything resembling science. They do sometimes reflect the strong feelings of readers but the samples are not random and the results don't necessarily show the support for these proposals in the country. That said, we have lots of subscribers and readers and, as our exclusive interview with Secretary Posny shows, we do have some street cred!
While voting on the poll on the lefthand side of the blog, be sure to check out the other permanent features there. Under Helpful Links, there are links to the popular special ed law groups on the various social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, and Plaxo. In the same section there are links to a searchable IDEA statute and federal regs; an info clearinghouse, the dispute resolution(CADRE) site, and the OSERS website. There is also a list of other blogs I read and sources for other news in the education realm. Most importantly, you can subscribe to the blog by any of three methods. You can receive the posts by email directly to your inbox. Or you can subscribe to our RSS feed and receive the posts in an aggregator or reader. Finally you can also get a widget (or blidget = blog widget) that you can place on your own blog or website. Whichever means you choose, please subscribe. Numbers are important in the blogosphere.
Reauthorization of IDEA is again overdue, but with Congress having other stuff on its plate, it may still take a while. But now is the time to start getting ready. Be prepared to let your senators and congressmen know how you feel about changes to this law when the issue becomes ripe. The organized interest groups are already making their positions known. I plan to share what you mention on this blog with the Congress, so please let me know what you think.
In addition, our ongoing poll reflects this question. I have identified ten of the issues frequently mentioned as areas of IDEA that should be changed. Interestingly only five vote separate the top five categories ( the range is 35 to 30 votes). The other five categories are lagging behind, but it is still anybody's game. Be sure to vote; register your opinion; exercise the franchise. Note these polls are not scientific or anything resembling science. They do sometimes reflect the strong feelings of readers but the samples are not random and the results don't necessarily show the support for these proposals in the country. That said, we have lots of subscribers and readers and, as our exclusive interview with Secretary Posny shows, we do have some street cred!
While voting on the poll on the lefthand side of the blog, be sure to check out the other permanent features there. Under Helpful Links, there are links to the popular special ed law groups on the various social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, and Plaxo. In the same section there are links to a searchable IDEA statute and federal regs; an info clearinghouse, the dispute resolution(CADRE) site, and the OSERS website. There is also a list of other blogs I read and sources for other news in the education realm. Most importantly, you can subscribe to the blog by any of three methods. You can receive the posts by email directly to your inbox. Or you can subscribe to our RSS feed and receive the posts in an aggregator or reader. Finally you can also get a widget (or blidget = blog widget) that you can place on your own blog or website. Whichever means you choose, please subscribe. Numbers are important in the blogosphere.
I was wondering what issues of the IDEA have been changed in the past. Are the same issues being revisited or do the issues change every cycle.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex,
ReplyDeletegood question.
Mostly the small things get tinkered with, but the 2004 reauthorization did make some changes: HO qualifications; the new resolution session; RtI as an eligibility mechanism for learning disabilities; the marriage with NCLB, etc.
Jim
I'm not sure if I think the bar should be raised for FAPE, or if FAPE should be better defined statutorily.
ReplyDeleteThnaks Mike,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comment.
How would you state the definition if you could rewrite the statute?
Jim
I'm not sure I'm up to rewriting the statute, but I do think that there needs to be a specific time frame (probably one school year) in which progress is measured using objective data. If the gap between the student in question and his/her peer group continues to widen, it's tough to consider the progress "adequate." So I suppose I'd definie "adequate" as at the very least ensuring that the learning gap does not increase during the school year. An increase in the gap is evidence that the education is in fact not appropriate.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thoughts.
Jim
There is always going to be a problem when the focus is on comparing the progress of a student receiving special education services to that of his/her peers in general education. "Progress" as expected in the general education classroom is an average taken from millions students. Kind of a "dull" set of numbers. This is the place in the curriculum we would expect an average student to be at a given time.
ReplyDeleteWe get into a problem thinking that progress of a student receiving special education services is the same - just slower, or the same but behind by two years etc.
It doesn't work that way. Student with disabilities may accelerate and/or decelerate in a myriad of ways and at various times all along their educational experience. It is not necessarily a smooth line on a graph.
The same argument could be made for students without disabilities (individual differences/differentiated instruction etc.) however, the sporadic nature of progress among students with disabilities makes these bright line comparisons practically useless. More research needs to be done in this area.
I also think there needs to be much more room to support the IDEA that the IEP can be a vehicle to steer a student away from the college track. Let's get away from the fill-in-the-bubbles. Throw the diploma away and throw it away early. Think outside the box in terms of goals for training, the focus of individual studying and development of skills.
ND,
ReplyDeleteWell said. I appreciate your thoughts.
Jim