As one of its last actions, the 108th Congress approved the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law governing special education for the nation's 6.5 million disabled students.
CTA members took a leadership role with their colleagues across the country in working through NEA to address many pressing issues. In a process that took nearly three years, they accomplished a number of goals, including:
- Flexibility in meeting the "highly qualified" teacher requirements legislated in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB);
- Significant increased support for professional development, preparation, recruitment and retention of teachers;
- Measures to reduce burdensome paperwork;
- Greater protection of educators' rights to participate in individual education plan (IEP) meetings;
- Enhanced ability for an educator to provide early intervention for struggling students;
- Simplified and more balanced discipline procedures, which were achieved without jeopardizing the fundamental civil rights of students with disabilities.
While "full funding" of the act is likely to be an ongoing concern, the package is "a good deal" for CTA members, says CTA's IDEA task force chair Diana Garchow, a special education teacher in Bakersfield. "Of course, the devil is in the details, but NEA represented us well from the start. It actually came out much better than I thought."
The reauthorization provides new flexibility for special education teachers in complying with NCLB requirements for achieving "highly qualified'' status. It allows states to develop a multi-subject High Objective, Uniform, State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) for veteran teachers like the one available to regular education teachers. States will also be allowed to develop a multi-subject HOUSSE for new special education teachers, who will have two years from the date of hire to go through it.
Unfortunately, there is no extension on the timeline for meeting the "highly qualified" teacher provisions. NEA had argued that special educators licensed according to state requirements should automatically be deemed highly qualified under the federal standard.
"While we appreciate the added flexibility this bill offers to teachers in meeting the 'highly qualified' definition, we do remain concerned that the bill's approach will not alleviate the burdens placed on special education teachers in some states," NEA said in a communique to Congress before the vote.
"We look forward to working with the U.S.
Department of Education as these provisions are implemented, and hope that states will proceed with approaches that help attract and retain teachers in the special education field, rather than exacerbate current shortages."
Early in the reauthorization process, NEA successfully thwarted attempts to insert voucher programs in the bill. NEA also worked to re-focus the bill toward improved learning and services for students, rather than just paperwork and process. By the time the bill came before the House and Senate for a final vote, NEA was able to give it qualified support despite its concerns about funding.
The new legislation allows for some money to be put into early intervention, "which is a good thing if there is enough money," says Garchow. "But we can't keep dipping into a pot that is not big enough to serve the needs."
Approximately 12 percent of public school students receive special attention and additional resources through special education. When IDEA was passed in 1975, the law included a commitment to pay 40 percent of the average per student cost for every special education student. That commitment has never been met, and while Congress has made significant progress in recent years, it is still only funding IDEA at 18 percent. The president's budget proposal for the 2005 budget year that began Oct. 1, 2004 would fund IDEA at half the promised 40 percent.
School districts are being forced to redirect more and more dollars from their general education budgets to cover the federal shortfall, which hurts all students — those in general education and those in special education. Since 1975, the unfunded federal portion has cost local schools and taxpayers more than $300 billion, according to NEA.
The newly approved legislation provides a six-year timetable and a formula for achieving full funding of the federal share of special education, but it does not include a guarantee to appropriate the funds. The funding issue remains on the table and is something the next Congress will need to address.
"We are disappointed that the federal government continues to fall far short of its commitment to full IDEA funding," NEA said in its letter to Congress. "We will continue to fight hard for these essential and long overdue resources, and we hope that you will support those efforts in this and future appropriations cycles."
Garchow maintains that members should be pleased with the work that was done by CTA and NEA on the law. "Our membership really made a difference. We got our task force started early on and we stayed on top of it. This is one time when our dues really paid off."
