The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is expected to come up for an important vote this month in the U.S. Senate, according to NEA Director Diana Garchow, who serves as chair of CTA's IDEA Task Force.
The House of Representatives passed its version, HR 1350, a year ago last March, but the Senate is still tinkering with its version, S 1248.
CTA and NEA members and staff have been working closely with the Senate staff to mold and refine the language in S 1248 to address teacher concerns, says Garchow.
The Senate will entertain three amendments from each party when the Senate bill goes on the floor for a vote. The Democrats are expected to propose language to provide full funding for special education over time, to allow better data collection and to provide better tracking of individual education plans (IEPs) for transitory and homeless students. The Republicans are expected to offer language capping attorney fees, authorizing the government to spend even less on special education and setting up a pilot project to reduce paperwork.
From the point of view of teachers, passage of the Hagel-Harken full-funding language being proposed by the Democrats is a major priority. It would ratchet up the funding level to 40 percent over the next eight years. Forty percent is what was originally promised when the bill was passed in 1975.
The paperwork provision is also a priority for teachers, but the legislators want it to be a pilot project in only 20 states. The CTA/NEA position is that teachers everywhere need paperwork relief, not just those in 20 select states, says Garchow.
Unfortunately, none of the amendments address one of the top CTA/NEA priorities, which is to define what makes a "highly qualified" special education teacher. The House version of the bill simply says teachers have to comply with language in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as the No Child Left Behind Act). "That's objectionable to us," says Garchow. "It means special education teachers at the middle school and high school levels have to be dually credentialed," once in special education and again in core subject matters.
"Our position is that special education teachers should be considered highly qualified if they're licensed by the state to teach special education," says Garchow.
Unfortunately, the entire education community is not behind that position. In particular, it's getting opposition from the U.S. Department of Education and the White House.
What appears to have some support is the idea of the special education teacher working in consultation with a regular classroom teacher and thereby being exempted from the highly qualified teacher requirement. Although some see it as the next best option if the original proposal doesn't get passed, Garchow says CTA is insistent upon continuing to work for the first option.
The only window of opportunity for inserting such language appears to be when the House and Senate versions of the IDEA reauthorization go to a conference committee where differences between the two bills will be worked out.
As for the timing, there are differing opinions as to whether the conference committee will report out before or after the presidential election. Once the compromise is reached, it's likely the vote to ratify it will take place quickly. Then the DOE has to write rules and regulations for implementing it, which could take another couple of years.
Members wishing to stay up-to-date on the IDEA reauthorization's progress can log on to NEA's website for updates [http://www.nea.org/specialed] and sign up for e-mail alerts [pralabate@nea.org].
