Holden signs school standards measure

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Bob Holden signed into law Tuesday a bill changing the accommodation standards for special-needs students in public schools.

State education officials backed the changes, which they claim are necessary to spare schools from high costs and allow them to follow lower federal standards that many school districts have been using for decades.

Parents of special-needs students had urged Holden to veto the bill, saying their children's education could be shortchanged.

In 1973, Missouri lawmakers passed a special education law requiring "services sufficient to meet the needs and maximize the capabilities of handicapped and severely handicapped children."

But in 1974, Congress passed a federal law simply requiring a "free and appropriate public education."

Missouri schools never followed the state law, instead abiding by the federal standard.

In December 2001, however, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that a Camdenton school should follow the state's "maximization" standard for meeting a student's special education needs.

The state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

So school officials sought to repeal the state law.