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Karen Rooney, CAN Coordinator for the Division for Learning Disabilities, provides brief reports for TeachingLD.org so that visitors can keep informed about important developments in policies affecting students with learning disabilities and their teachers. TeachingLD.org is pleased to offer this page as a place for people concerned with learning disabilities to keep up to date.
10 December 2003
Legislative Update by Karen Rooney, CAN Coordinator
CEC's Jackie Bootel prepared a description of recent changes in regulations that is so good we decided to post it on TeachingLD.org without rephrasing it. In this statement, Jackie explains new rules about how the performance of students with disabilities will affect a school's or local education agency's accountability for student progress.
New Regulation Gives Districts More Flexibility to Meet AYP Requirements for Students with Disabilities
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced a new provision of the No Child Left Behind education reform law that will give local school districts greater flexibility in meeting the act's requirements for students with disabilities. The Secretary made the announcement at a press conference with Special Olympics founder Eunice Shriver, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner and students with disabilities, their parents, relatives and teachers.
Under final rules published in today's Federal Register, states, school districts and schools will have the flexibility to count the 'proficient' scores of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who take assessments based on alternate achievement standards. Without this flexibility, those scores would have to be measured against grade-level standards and considered 'not proficient' when states measure adequate yearly progress (AYP). Under the rule, which goes into effect on January 8, these students would be tested against standards appropriate for their intellectual development and, for accountability purposes, their scores would be counted as part of their school's performance. The intent is two-fold: to protect children with disabilities from being excluded from accountability systems that provide valuable information to parents and educators and to ensure that schools receive credit for the progress of all children. The number of "proficient" scores counted for adequate yearly progress (AYP) may not exceed one percent of all students in the grades tested (nearly nine percent of students with disabilities), although states may appeal for a higher limit if they can demonstrate that they have a larger population of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Individual schools are not subject to the one-percent cap as it applies only to district and state accountability decisions.
The accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind require school districts and schools to achieve adequate yearly progress (AYP), the minimum level of improvement that must be met every year. In technical terms, AYP refers to the percentage of students who must reach the state's definition of academic proficiency each year in order for all students to be proficient by 2013-14. States must specify annual objectives to measure the progress of all students, including specific subgroups of students-defined by poverty, race and ethnicity, disability and limited English proficiency-in order to ensure that every child reaches proficiency in reading and math by 2013-14.
This year, for the first time, every state is required to publicly report which schools have not made AYP.
"For some students," Paige said, "'proficiency' may look a lot different than it does for other students, but frequent assessments of progress meeting state standards are an important part of the educational process and no student should be excluded.
Instead, he said accommodations such as increased time or the use of assistive technology can be provided to ensure the unique needs of children with disabilities are taken into account as they participate with their peers in the assessment process.
The new rule does not limit how many students can be tested with an alternate assessment; it limits only the number of scores based on alternate achievement standards that can be included as proficient in AYP measurement calculations. The new guidelines still call for the alternate achievement standards to be tied to state academic content standards.
The new provision was originally proposed by the department and published in the Federal Register on March 20. CEC provided extensive comments to the proposed regulation; in all, about 100 comments were received from local school officials, parents and others, and were reviewed as part of the process leading to the development of the final regulations.
A significant change from the proposed regulation is the elimination of a definition of students with significant cognitive disabilities. Rather, states will define this group of students.
CEC staff are attending briefings on the new regulation both today and tomorrow; we will provide more information as it becomes available.
To access the final regulations, go to:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/finrule/2003-4/120903a.html
