Congress should act quickly to improve special ed

The U.S. Senate took a major step forward in the effort to strengthen education for special needs students by passing its version of the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act on May 13.

Since Congress first passed IDEA in 1975, the law has done much to improve educational opportunities for millions of students who need special education services. However, in recent years court decisions and administrative actions have altered the basic intent of the law to such an extent that educators today are faced with an untenable situation.

Frequently, IDEA has created an adversarial relationship between special education teachers and parents. A significant amount of time and money are being wasted in costly litigation, resources that could have been used for classroom instruction.

This, along with the mountains of paperwork required by the law, has caused many special education teachers to leave the profession. The result has not been good for students. The bill passed by the Senate includes provisions designed to provide early resolution of disputes between schools and parents, options for mediation and changes in due-process procedures.

The bill also provides increased flexibility to local school districts regarding the development and implementation of Individualized Education Plans as well as the elimination of unnecessary administrative requirements.

Local school districts have been very concerned about the administrative complexity of IDEA's discipline provisions for many years. These provisions often prohibit the classroom teacher or principal from disciplining a special needs student in the same way the school might discipline other students for disruptive or dangerous behavior.

The Senate version of the IDEA reauthorization makes progress toward eliminating the dual discipline provisions in the current law, which have allowed disruptive behavior of special needs students to have an adverse impact on the overall school climate in some cases.

The bill makes some progress in the area of funding special education, but it still does not require Congress to meet the promise it made in 1975 to fund 40 percent of the cost of special education.

Currently, the federal government funds about 18 percent of those costs, forcing local school districts to make up the difference. For many school districts, special education is now the fastest growing area of their budgets.

The Missouri School Boards Association convened a special education advisory committee, comprised of special education professionals, several months ago to draft a set of common sense changes to IDEA. We're pleased that many of those recommendations are in the bill passed by the Senate.

We thank U.S. Sen. Kit Bond for his strong support of these recommendations.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of IDEA several months ago. A House-Senate conference committee should take up the bills as soon as possible to develop final language and then return the measure to Congress for passage and the president's signature.

We cannot miss this important opportunity to restore IDEA's fundamental premise that all children must have access to quality education.

Dr. Carter Ward is executive director of the Missouri School Boards Association in Jefferson City, Mo.