|
ASHA members submitted over 1600 comment letters and multiple speakers attended almost all of the regional public meetings to represent school-based SLP and audiologist's interests in response to the Department of Education's (ED) pre-regulatory public comment period that ended on February 28th. ASHA President, Dolores Battle, testified at the February 7th public meeting in Boston and focused on ASHA's concerns about the personnel qualification changes in IDEA 2004 and the potential changes in qualification standards and hiring practices that could negatively impact the early diagnosis, treatment, and education of children with communication disabilities.
ED reported that it collected roughly 6000 written comments and had about 450 people speaking at the seven regional public meetings. ASHA would like to thank the members who responded to our alerts by submitting comments and requests to testify before the regional hearings.
In addition to member input, ASHA submitted a 14-page comment letter which focused on members' concerns to issues, including: (1) the potential changes in qualification standards and hiring practices; (2) early intervening services; (3) specific learning disabilities; (4) evaluation, eligibility determinations of limited English proficient (LEP) students; (5) assistive technology; and (6) the birth-to-six program.
The pre-regulatory comment period represents only the first phase of the IDEA regulatory process. ED anticipates the release of proposed rules on IDEA by early April 2005, at which time there will be another series of regional meetings on its notice of proposed rulemaking. Anticipated sites include San Antonio, Chicago, New York., Las Vegas, and Tennessee. ASHA will keep members advised of developments in the next phase of input for the IDEA 2004 regulations. For further information, please contact Catherine D. Clarke, ASHA's Director of Education and Regulatory Advocacy, via e-mail at cclarke@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4159.
|