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Parents, teachers, and administrators in schools are keenly aware of the potential impact of IDEA '04 on services provided to children with disabilities and the learning and literacy needs of these children. In an effort to ensure that ASHA members and consumers are informed about changes in the law, ASHA is providing a set of messages that address the following key issues:
Check back frequently for further breaking news as we move into the regulatory phase of this legislation.
The new law, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA '04), allows the hiring of speech-language pathologists and audiologists who meet the requirements of any state-recognized certificate or license. States could now decide that a master's degree is no longer needed and hire personnel who only have a pre-professional bachelor's degree. The old law, IDEA '97, required that personnel meet the highest requirements in a state for a profession or discipline. For audiologists and speech-language pathologists, this requirement included a master's degree in most states.
A lowering of personnel standards in schools puts the educational success of school children with speech, language, and hearing disabilities at great risk with respect to ensuring that they receive the appropriate quality and quantity of services, consistent with the intent of Congress.
- Bachelor's degree personnel lack both coursework in the broad range of communication and related disorders as well as supervised experience in providing services to school children. These inadequately trained, lesser qualified personnel are not prepared to assess and treat students with special needs to meet the goals of IDEA and No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
- Research indicates that both parents and teachers report children's improvement in academic subjects after receiving speech-language pathology services from a qualified, master's degree provider. No comparable data are available for services from bachelor's level personnel. This lack of academic progress is not consistent with the goals of IDEA or NCLB.
Allowing less rigorous personnel qualifications in the schools will create a two-tiered system of services to children in our nation's schools. Students who receive services in other settings (e.g. private practice or hospitals) receive services from a highly qualified master's degree professional, but in school settings services could be provided by less qualified bachelor's level personnel. [1]
Hiring personnel who are not adequately prepared to assess and treat students with special needs may increase the cost of special education due to over identification or misidentification of students who do not need services and remain in treatment a longer time.
Lowering qualifications to fill vacancies is shortsighted and not in the best interest of children's education. Vacancies should be addressed by improving working conditions, reducing unmanageable caseloads/workloads, providing salary and hiring incentives, implementing loan forgiveness programs, instituting mentorship programs for new hires, and implementing other recruitment and retention strategies that are provided for classroom teachers but are often overlooked for related service personnel like audiologists and speech-language pathologists. Large caseloads/workloads limit the professional's ability to provide the appropriate quality and quantity of services to students with disabilities.
Bachelor's level personnel may be incorporated into delivery of selected services but then only under the direction of qualified personnel with enough supervision to ensure sound educational achievement by the children who are served.
Although Congress granted the states greater flexibility in establishing personnel standards under IDEA, House and Senate conferees were clear that they expect educational agencies to establish rigorous qualifications for related services providers that ensure that students with disabilities receive the appropriate quality and quantity of services, consistent with the intent of Congress. As the U.S. Department of Education develops regulations to implement the revised IDEA, it should provide very specific guidance to states and require documentation of how their personnel standards meet Congressional intent and the needs of children with speech, language, and hearing disabilities.
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Early Intervention
IDEA '04 allows parents the option of keeping their child in the infant and toddler program or switching him/her to the IDEA Part B program at age three. The use of qualified professionals is equally important for the infant and toddler (0 - 3 years) program of IDEA. Since a strong foundation of language development is critical for later success in a wide range of academic subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics, infants and toddlers who lag behind their peers need the unique expertise and skills of qualified specialists, to develop necessary skills before they enter school.
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Early Intervening
Qualified professionals will also be beneficial to the early intervening program established by the 2004 law. This new program allows at-risk children to receive additional academic and behavioral support, including scientifically-based reading instruction, without being identified as needing special education. Qualified professionals can provide needed language-based services, assess the child's progress, and recommend classroom modifications on a short-term basis to determine if the child can progress academically with extra support outside of special education. Early intervening services should be used as short-term solutions and should not replace special education services when a child needs them.
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English Language Learners
ASHA supports ED's inclusion in the proposed regulations of a provision that assessments and other evaluation materials used to assess the child are provided in the child's native language or other mode of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to so provide or administer. ASHA recommends that this provision be retained in the final regulations. Regulations should also make clear that:
- Bilingual children should be given a thorough screening of their language history to determine the appropriate language of assessment.
- Children should be evaluated in their native language, when appropriate, by qualified bilingual speech-language pathologists or with the assistance of a trained interpreter.
- When appropriate and feasible, assessment should be done in both the native language and in English.
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Assistive Technology
The new law maintains the need for assistive technology (AT) devices and services to be considered in the development of each child's Individualized Education Program (IEP).
IDEA '04 is still unclear as to what is and what is not school responsibility when an AT device, such as a hearing aid or eyeglasses, serves both educational and medical functions or is needed for both personal and educational use. The U.S. Department of Education needs to clarify school responsibility in the regulations. All children should receive whatever AT device or service is needed for a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). However, the new law specifically excludes a medical device that is surgically implanted, or the replacement of such a device from the assistive technology (AT) category. As a result, Cochlear Implants and other medical devices that are surgically implanted are specifically excluded from the AT category under IDEA '04.
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Learning Disabilities
IDEA '04 specifically says that there is no longer a requirement for a child to have a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in order to be diagnosed as having a specific learning disability. This part of the law recognizes that use of discrepancy formulas may disqualify children for special education services when they may benefit from receiving them.
Children who indeed have a learning disability, but were denied services in the past due to the requirements of the discrepancy model, will now receive appropriate services
IDEA '04 specifically recognizes that the need for services may be based on a Response to Intervention (RTI) model. In this model, scientifically researched intervention methods are used to determine if a student requires special education.
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Individual Education Programs (IEPs)
With approval from the parents and the Local Education Agency (LEA) the new IDEA '04 allows an IEP team member to be excused from IEP meetings if no modifications are being made to that area of curriculum or service, or if the member provides input prior to the meeting. Relevant team members should participate in making this decision to guarantee that his/her professional expertise is not needed. ASHA recommends that relevant team members should participate in making this decision to guarantee that his/her professional expertise is not needed.
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Funding
IDEA '04 authorizes but does not mandate full funding for services for children with disabilities. Full funding is needed for IDEA to provide all children with disabilities the services they need. The lack of full funding places an undue financial burden on states and local education agencies that must make up for the shortfall in funding.
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[1] Children who receive Medicaid speech-language pathology services in the schools must still receive them from personnel who meet the highest state requirements. The less qualified bachelor's level personnel could only provide services to Medicaid students under the direction of a qualified provider. Bachelor's level personnel may be incorporated into delivery of selected services but then only under the supervision of qualified personnel as para-professionals to ensure sound educational achievement by the children who are served.
(10/21/05)
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