Sharon, MA – More than 6.6 million students
with disabilities and their families stand to lose their
right to a free, appropriate public education in this
country. H.R. 1350, passed by the U.S. House of
Representatives on April 30, 2003, reauthorizes the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), with
regressive provisions that actually hurts children. If
a similar bill passes the Senate, millions of our
students with disabilities will most certainly be left
behind.
“H.R. 1350 turns back the civil rights
clock 30 years and brings us back to square one in terms
of disability rights. It took that long for parents to
finally have our students attend neighborhood schools
with some semblance of education. Now all of that is at
risk with the passage of this destructive bill,” says
Suzanne Peyton of Sharon, MA, whose children have a
medical and learning disability.
Mrs. Peyton is not alone in her concerns.
Most of the student and parent advocacy agencies across
the country and in Massachusetts agree with her. And
the parent listserv that her organization, MASSPAC,
provides to parents is "burning the internet" with
anger, anxiety, frustration and fear".
Wendy Byrnes of DREDF (a national law and
policy center dedicated to furthering the civil rights
of people with disabilities and parents of children with
disabilities) has warned that “the 108th
Congress could have their place in history secured as
the permanent dismantlers of appropriate public
education for millions of disabled children in the
United States if H.R. 1350 is not amended by the Senate
before becoming the reauthorized and very dangerous IDEA
it appears to be in its current incarnation.”
Many groups representing educators and
other school-based professionals opposed H.R. 1350 along
with student/parent advocacy groups. The National
Education Association, representing 2.7 million members,
as well as the National Association of School
Psychologists, the American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association, and at least 36 other organizations opposed
passage of H.R. 1350. However, “the House ignored this
widespread opposition to H.R. 1350 in favor of the very
well funded and strong lobby of school administrators,”
says Peyton, and claimed that these parents and
advocates were spreading misinformation regarding this
bill and advised their colleagues to ignore the fear
tactics.
Paul Marchand, Staff Director for The Arc
and UCP Public Policy Collaboration, and co-chair of the
Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Education Task
Force, who has been involved on the federal level with
IDEA since the early 1970’s, agrees: “This legislation
is the worst national public policy since before the
Congress enacted the right to education for students
with disabilities almost 30 years ago. The bill seeks
to appease school administrators at the expense of
students with disabilities and their parents. The House
bill twists the law from one for kids to one for school
superintendents and principals.”
Suzanne Peyton is also a school board
member in her community and she believes this bill fails
dismally in its stated dual purposes of reducing
paperwork and increasing educational results: “As a
parent of two children with disabilities and a school
board member, this bill does very little to help our
teachers and staff that actually work with our children,
and a whole lot to hurt students with disabilities.”
There is no question about it. The claim of reduced
paperwork is a red herring. The paperwork factor is
generated by school based attorneys who train school
staff to "cover their backside", IF EVER a case goes to
hearing. IDEA in and of itself does not create a lot of
paperwork. The schools' reaction to it is what creates
the paperwork.
“H.R. 1350 is frightening,” says Michele
Cantara, a Chelmsford mother, business executive, and
the recipient of a leadership award from the Federation
for Children with Special Needs. She is particularly
concerned with proposed changes to the IEP. “This bill
dilutes and virtually removes parents’ and teachers’
abilities to closely and appropriately monitor a child’s
progress at school. Optional 3- year IEPs are a joke.
Many parents don’t know or will not know that they can
have an IEP every year. Removing benchmarks is a
catastrophe. The reality is these kids will fall
further and further behind. Schools will not be held
accountable”.
“And without the procedural protections
currently contained in the existing IDEA, which H.R.
1350 systematically eliminates, parents will have no
recourse, no options, no ability to advocate for their
children,” says Peyton.
Some parents across this country, and in
Massachusetts, believe that the timing of this bill’s
introduction was well planned and orchestrated to
coincide with the launch of the war in Iraq. On March
19th, President Bush began the war against
Iraq. That same day,
Congress declared war against 6 million United States
students who receive special education services
nationwide by introducing H.R. 1350. By keeping the
public focused on Iraq, knowing that people would fear a
visit to Washington to protest the bill, the timing was
ripe for a swift passage of it.
"This bill is so short sighted, Peyton
states, because without an appropriate education, many
of these children will find themselves without an
education, on the streets and eventually unemployed or
will fuel our juvenile system. These kids are being held
to an adult level of responsibility for behaviors they
are not able to be responsible for."
The Senate soon will introduce its own
version of the bill reauthorizing IDEA. “I hope the
Senate will do a better job than the House by really
listening to parents and looking out for students.
Either the House members that voted in favor of H.R.
1350 didn’t think that students with disabilities are
‘children’, or they didn’t understand that kids with
disabilities need IDEA written as a “ramp” to actually
benefit from No Child Left Behind [NCLB],” explains
Peyton. "The only piece of good news out of this
fiasco, was that every single representative from
Massachusetts voted not to support HR1350 and responded
to their constituents' concerns and stories of what the
reality is for kids with disabilities."
For more information on IDEA
Reauthorization, please visit the following Web sites:
http://www.keepkidslearning.org
http://www.ourchildrenleftbehind.com
http://www.thearc.org/ga/ideaupdate.doc
http://www.bridges4kids.org/IDEA.html
http://www.dredf.org
