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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PUTS GUARD AT OSEP HELM

August 20, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Patricia Guard has taken over the directors' chair at the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, but only for a while. Guard was named acting director this week to replace Tom Hehir, who left OSEP to take a position at Harvard University.

Guard had been deputy director of OSEP and has done the acting director stint twice before to fill in for departed directors. As a member of the "Senior Executive Service," Guard is a federal government employee who cannot permanently take over a political seat in the government unless appointed. The director of OSEP, like the director of its parent the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Secretary of Education, is an appointed position.

Guard presides over a staff of 120 and an annual budget of $5.3 billion. As deputy director, she has been responsible for providing policy guidance, managerial direction and supervision for OSEP programs. Since joining the department in 1983, she has also served as Director of Policy and Planning in OSERS and Legislative Analyst in the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs. Before coming to Washington, she was a director of special education in Indiana.8