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 The Part B final regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (commonly known as IDEA 2004) were issued less than a year after the law celebrated 30 years of guaranteeing a free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities.
The release of the regulations also marks the end of a five-year reauthorization and regulatory period. After nearly three years of working to reform and revise IDEA, the law was given new life with the signature of President Bush on Dec. 3, 2004. The law took effect on Oct. 13 and is known as Public Law No. 108-446.
This launched a regulatory process at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) designed to explain congressional intent and help states and localities implement and comply with the law. The ED took the unprecedented step of soliciting public comments prior to its release of proposed regulations, and ASHA members actively participated in the regulatory process. Speech-language pathologists and audiologists testified at seven regional public meetings around the country and submitted more than 1,600 comment letters. ASHA also submitted detailed comments to the ED during the "pre-comment" period which ended in early 2005.
In June 2005 the ED released an "un-official" copy of the proposed regulations to implement recently enacted changes, most of which took effect on July 1, 2005-except the provisions for highly qualified teachers which took effect immediately. ASHA members across the country testified at a second series of regional meetings that summer. Following publication of the "official" notice of proposed rulemaking on June 21, 2005, members submitted hundreds of comments.
Over the next year, the ED analyzed the comments and released the official IDEA 2004 Part B final regulations on Aug. 14, 2006. In the end, the new regulations closely align with the language of the law and contain few regulatory changes to avoid over-reaching the statute.
While the regulations allow the hiring of SLPs and audiologists that meet the requirements of any state-recognized certificate or license, the new regulations remove the provision that requires state education personnel standards to meet the highest requirement for a profession or discipline in that state, consistent with a change in the IDEA statute (see story on page 31). Member advocacy at the state level will be critical. It is important that members be vigilant concerning any threats to lower personnel standards in their state. SLPs and audiologists will need to work with decision-makers in their state to ensure that personnel standards are maintained.
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