Children & Youth Action Network
(CAN) Reports

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Judy B. Engelhard, 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.

28 June 2005

IDEA 2004 PROPOSED RULES PUBLISHED

Official proposed regulations for Part B of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004) were published in the Federal Register, Tuesday, June 21, 2005.
Part B of IDEA governs special education for children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21. Other proposed regulations will be issued at separate intervals. For example, the Part C regulations about services to infants and toddlers will be published at a later date. To view the Federal Register posting, click here.

TROY JUSTESEN MEETS WITH "CAN" COORDINATORS

On June 13, Dr. Troy Justesen, Deputy Assistant Secretary with the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services met at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Headquarters with the Children and Youth Action Network (CAN) Coordinators who represent all divisions and state chapters of CEC. CAN participants raised several issues with Dr. Justesen who seemed genuinely interested in hearing from the field. He noted the Department of Education expects between 10,000 and 50,000 comments on the proposed IDEA regulations. After the department reviews all public comments, they will revise the regulations and publish the Final Regulations in the Federal Register. According to Dr. Justesen, they expect to publish the Final Regulations six or seven months after IDEA 2004 goes into effect on July 1, 2005 (December 2005- January 2006).

CEC OFFERS IDEA COMPARISONS IN KEY AREAS

CEC posted its initial side-by-side of some of the proposed regulations for the new IDEA 2004 on its Web site. Selected issues include Learning Disabilities, Qualified Personnel, Early Intervening Services, IEP's, and Discipline Provisions. Read CEC's side-by-side by going to http://www.cec.sped.org/pdfs/Initial_Summary.pdf.

LEARNING DISABILITIES CHANGES IN IDEA 2004

Key issues in the Learning Disabilities proposed regulations relate to identification procedures. Many of the recommendations from the LD RoundTable document (posted on TeachingLD.org) were included in the proposed regulations. Other proposed changes include:

• The addition of "reading fluency" to the areas of achievement deficits,
• The removal of ability as a factor for the team to use when determining whether the child is achieving commensurate with the child's age in the areas of achievement deficit,
• A requirement that states adopt criteria for determining whether a child has a specific learning disability. The criteria may not require the use of a severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement for determining whether a child has a specific learning disability. The state-adopted criteria must permit the use of a process that determines if a child responds to scientific, research-based intervention as part of the evaluation procedures and the state may permit the use of other alternative research-based procedures for determining whether a child has a specific learning disability.

PUBLIC COMMENT ON IDEA PROPOSED REGULATIONS SOUGHT

After the publication date of June 21, there are 75 days during which public comments on the proposed regulations can be offered to the Department of Education for their consideration.

If you want a regulation changed or think a regulation is unclear, you are invited to advise the Department about the specific changes you want made to that regulation and why.

Opportunities to comment in person at a series of public meetings that continue through July 2005 can be found at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/idea/public-meetings.html.

Individuals can provide oral and written comments about the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) at the public meetings; written comments that accompany oral remarks are optional.

Written comments or suggestions about the NPRM can also be submitted electronically to comments@ed.gov or mailed to:

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
U.S. Department of Education,
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Potomac Center Plaza, Room 5126
Washington, DC, 20202-2641

Questions can be directed to OSERS' main number, (202) 245-7468, or, if a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) is needed, individuals may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.

For a copy of the law and other pertinent information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education's Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 Web page at http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/idea2004.html.

NJCLD APPROVES RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION (RTI) PAPER

The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD), of which DLD is a member, developed a paper to assist the field in understanding RTI and how an RTI process may be implemented. The paper includes cautions for the process as well. The paper will be distributed soon to all NJCLD organizations. As soon as the paper is finalized, DLD will post it on our website. You may find this paper to be especially useful during public comments on IDEA 2004 and in RTI discussions.

CEC HOSTS IDEA 2004 WEB SEMINARS

CEC is hosting the following three IDEA 2004 Web Seminars in an interactive format to help with understanding many of the policy changes in the new IDEA:

• What's New in the New IDEA: Highly Qualified
  Thursday, June 30, 2005, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. EDT
• What's New in the New IDEA: Early Intervention, Assessment, Identification, and IEPs
  Thursday, July 14, 2005, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. EDT
• What's New in the New IDEA: Discipline
  Tuesday, July 19, 2005, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. EDT

Each seminar is $250 or register for ALL three for $500. Payment is per site. Find out more about the series and register today at http://www.cec.sped.org/pd/webseminar/IDEA2004.html

Judy B. Engelhard
CAN Coordinator, DLD

If you have suggestions or recommendations you would like to make for the regulations, send your comments to CAN@teachingld.org.