Summary of  1997 IDEA Law

Introduction:

The President signed the reauthorizing legislation for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments (IDEA) into law (P.L. 105-17) on Wednesday, June 4, 1997. H.R. 5, as amended, passed the House of Representatives on May 13, 1997, by a vote of 420-3. An identical piece of legislation was passed by the Senate on May 14, 1997, by a vote of 98-1. Because the bills were identical, no conference occurred. IDEA was enrolled by Congress on June 3 and signed into law on June 4, 1997.

Overall, there are major improvements in the new law, especially as compared to the previous proposed versions, both for the children who receive services under IDEA, and for the professionals who provide those services. Most importantly for ASHA, the bill retains related services providers. The removal of related services personnel from IDEA, had been a threat at one point during the reauthorization, which has spanned more than three years. The highest qualified provider language also remained intact.

Grassroots Efforts

ASHA grassroots efforts played a tremendous role in the success of the reauthorization. The number of ASHA members who have made Hill visits has increased significantly over the past few years, and has had a positive effect in terms of name recognition for the professions and in that it has helped to create a greater awareness of the need for qualified personnel.

Background

An unprecedented process was used to finally bring closure to this effort. A brief explanation will help to put things into context, and provide a better perspective and appreciation as to where we were, and where we are now.

The 104th Congress failed to reauthorize IDEA, and education for children with disabilities became an extremely contentious issue. During that legislative session, bills containing extremely destructive language for both children with disabilities and the professionals in the schools, were introduced, and moved in varying degrees through both houses. It was during this time that the most serious threats occurred. Not only were personnel standards at stake, but as stated above, there were also attempts to try to remove related services from IDEA altogether.

At the beginning of the 105th Congress, Senator Jeffords of Vermont and Congressman Goodling of Pennsylvania agreed to temporarily take IDEA out of the traditional legislative process, and open it up to community input.

What followed was the creation of the IDEA Working Group (IWG), which comprised key Republican and Democratic Congressional staffers from both the House and the Senate, as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of Education.

Weekly meetings were held by the IDEA Working Group, and attended by representatives of general education, special education, parents, the disability community, as well as professional associations such as ASHA. ASHA was represented at each and every meeting. The IWG would listen to recommendations by the community and would subsequently use that information to craft compromise language. During the process, the IWG would share summaries of proposals. ASHA analyzed and submitted recommendations to each document released by the IWG.

This process continued until April 29th, when a draft bill was released, and ASHA was able to see, for the first time, the proposed legislative language. After that, the schedule was on "fast forward". Within one week of the bill's release, it was marked up by the full education committees in both the House and Senate. The legislation reached the floor of the House and Senate less than a week later.

Specific Provisions

No cessation of services- One of most important protections for children has been preserved. No child with a disability will be deprived of educational services as result of their behavior. Earlier bills had allowed cessation of services for certain behaviors.

Attorneys Fees/Mediation- Reasonable restrictions have been put on the awarding of attorneys' fees and all states will now be required to offer the parties voluntary mediation. The bill includes protective language stipulating that mediation cannot be used to deny or delay a parent's right to due process.

IEP- The legislation adds some new Individualized Education Program (IEP) requirements and a new section entitled "Consideration of Special Factors," which includes the following:

(iv) consider the communication needs of the child, and in the case of a child who is deaf or hard of hearing, consider the child's language and communication needs, opportunities for direct communications with peers and professional personnel in the child's language and communication mode, academic level, and full range of needs, including opportunities for direct instruction in the child's language and communication mode; and

(V) consider whether the child requires assistive technology devices and services.

The IEP members have also been expanded to include, among others, the special education teacher, and the regular education teacher, as appropriate. Related services personnel may be specified as team members by the school or the parents. The IEP requirements take effect in 1998.

Maintenance of Effort- At one point, the House bill contained a provision that would have allowed local education agencies to lower its maintenance of effort, in terms of funding, if they replaced high cost staff with lower paid staff. There are now restrictions in place that would preclude that from happening.

Discretionary Programs- The discretionary programs have improved significantly from the bills originally proposed. In prior bills, institutions of higher education were unable to compete for personnel preparation funds. In the new bill, institutions of higher education are once again eligible entities for competitive funding. The language in the Personnel Preparation section is tied to state identified needs for qualified personnel, and now specifically authorizes the preparation of personnel needed to serve children with high-incidence disabilities, including children with speech or language impairments.

The Technology Development section now promotes the dissemination of technology with universal design features. In addition, the Studies and Evaluations section allows for the collection of data for issues concerning minority children.

Personnel Standards- Personnel standards remain successfully intact in the law, although there have been some additions. Language has been added to the personnel standards provision, which allows a state, in accordance with state law, regulations or written policy to use paraprofessionals who are "appropriately trained and supervised" to assist in the provision of special education and related services." New language also allows states to adopt a policy requiring local education agencies to make ongoing good faith efforts to recruit and hire appropriately and adequately trained personnel. In areas where shortages exist, this includes hiring persons making satisfactory progress toward completing coursework necessary to meet state certification standards within three years.

We are currently seeking greater clarification of this new law through the regulatory process, which the Department of Education will start shortly. ASHA will be very much involved with this process.

ASHA is preparing a technical assistance packet for our members, which will be available in the fall. It will include information on the major changes in the law, including IEP content, discipline, assistive technology, personnel standards, evaluations, eligibility, parent consent, IEP team and special factors for the IEP team, private schools, and charter schools.

If you are interested in receiving more information or have any question please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy at 800-498-2071, ext. 4257 or nsnyder@asha.org or Catherine Clarke, ASHA's Director of Regulatory Advocacy at 800-498-2071, ext. 4159 or cclarke@asha.org.

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