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NEW IDEA '97 REGULATIONS SET HIGH BAR FOR SPECIAL ED STUDENTS

March 12, 1999

WASHINGTON--The Department of Education touted its regulations for implementing the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as appropriately challenging for American special education students. Announcing the release of the final regulations, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said, "The new IDEA focuses on teaching and learning and establishes high expectations for disabled children to achieve real educational results.

"The thrust of IDEA has changed from one that merely provides disabled children access to an education to one that improves quality for all children in our schools," he added.

The Department said it based its regulations in part on nearly 6,000 comments submitted in response to the department's request for public input in October 1997. The department estimates about six million U.S. students in kindergarten through twelfth grade have disabilities.

According to the Department of Education, the new regulations were written to help parents, teachers and school administrators understand how to comply with the law, but also to ensure special education students are instructed in a way that ensures safety for all students at all levels. In other words, the regulations take into account not only the needs of special education students but also the rising concerns by teachers and administrators about general violence and disciplinary problems in America's schools. While those problems have in no way been linked solely to special education students, the Department of Education used the new IDEA rules as an opportunity to clarify disciplinary rules for those students.

Rule Highlights

Under IDEA '97, schools can remove a student for up to 10 school days for minor disciplinary infractions and up to 45 days for dangerous behavior. The Department of Education's regulations stipulate that schools do not have to provide educational or other services during the first 10-day suspension but must do so for any subsequent 10-day or greater periods to ensure the child continues to appropriately progress in the general curriculum and appropriately advance toward the goals of the individualized education program. "For example, if a child is subsequently removed for only one or two more days and is generally doing well in school, it could be that the only service that might be necessary is that homework or make-up assignments are sent home. For longer periods, more services will likely be necessary," the department said.

The rules also address how many disciplinary meetings are appropriate for such students and make clear that school personnel have the authority to remove disruptive children if it is in the interest of school safety.

The regulations also offer specific guidance on setting up and monitoring a student's IEP, which IDEA established as the primary tool for ensuring and evaluating the student's progress in the school district's general curriculum. However, special ed. students must still be included in state and district-wide assessment programs, under IDEA.

While IDEA requires that each student's IEP administrative team includes one regular ed. and one special ed. teacher, the Department of Education's regulations make the IEP meetings flexible by not requiring the regular ed. teacher to attend every one.

For More Specifics

The complete text of the regulations package is available from the Government Printing Office, and a summary is posted on the Education Department's Web site.8