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IDEA Faces Reauthorization

And NEA members in California are working to ensure it's fully funded and effectively addresses the needs of students.

Ask California elementary special ed teacher Ken Johnson what he likes most about his job--"pull-out" work with youngsters who often have processing disabilities--and he answers in a blink. "I have the unique opportunity to see a child's steady progress over time, year-in, year-out--sometimes over five years," says the seven-year veteran.

"I remember a first grader who knew two letters and could not write her own name," Johnson says. "After four years, she was proficient in reading at grade level!"

Johnson, who teaches at Woodrow Wilson Elementary in Colton, embodies what's right and workable about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), first passed by Congress in 1975 to ensure a "free appropriate public education" matched to the needs of children with disabilities.

Despite incredible challenges-- many mandatory procedures, a mountain of paperwork, daily contacts with outside agencies and organizations, and meager federal IDEA funding--Johnson still achieves results and believes strongly in the fundamental ideal of public education.

"Everyone, starting from the top down, should believe that all children can learn," says Johnson. "There's got to be a sense of community, a sense that they're all 'our' kids, that everyone belongs. Administrators and general and special ed teachers must collaborate, communicate, reassess, and re-evaluate, and--above all--look at the needs of each child and ensure a continuum of options."

That's just one message the Bush administration and members of Congress will be hearing from Johnson and other NEA members this spring during the process to "reauthorize" IDEA, last amended in 1997.

Consensus has already emerged among NEA members on what it'll take to effectively educate students with disabilities while protecting their basic rights.

Topping this list: full federal funding of IDEA (promised at 40 percent, now at just 18 percent), manageable workload/paperwork standards, adequate professional development, "early intervention" to spot child needs, consistency in IDEA eligibility, and effective disciplinary procedures--linked to alternative learning settings for offenders.

It's a lobbying challenge complicated by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which has created a funding-for-outcomes system based on narrow, standardized testing.

It is no secret that the Bush administration wants IDEA to look more like ESEA. The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education specifically recommends that "state and local accountability systems...must be consistent with the No Child Left Behind Act [ESEA]."

This will become extremely difficult when school districts grapple with how to blend the group-based testing model of ESEA with the individualized instruction model of IDEA.

But if any group of educators can push to make IDEA useful and humane, it's the 330,000 members of the California Teachers Association (CTA), who collectively educate 670,000 students with individualized education plans (IEPs). CTA, NEA's largest state affiliate, is now engaged in a high-energy campaign to ensure that federal policy makers write a special ed law that reflects classroom realities and needs.

Steering the drive is CTA's top policy-making body, the State Council, and its broad-based CTA IDEA Task Force--combining elected leaders, general and special ed teachers, and Association staffers in every specialty from special education to litigation.

At press time, the task force was surveying special and general educators in every CTA local affiliate to refine the Association's list of IDEA reauthorization priorities, while participating in a 30-organization statewide coalition of special ed "stakeholders" to develop some common bargaining objectives.

"CTA wants to be proactive, not reactive in the IDEA reauthorization process," says task force member Judy Jacobs, chair of CTA's Special and Alternative Education Committee. "Our members need to have their voices heard before people make decisions in Washington."

--Dave Winans

An IDEA Lobbying Guide

Congress is to start hearings and debate on IDEA reauthorization in early spring, but the time for NEA members to be heard is now.

"Send e-mails and letters to your members of Congress," NEA lobbyist Kim Anderson urges special and general educators. "And organize visits by NEA member to see your representatives in Congress. You can visit at their district offices. Invite them to your school. We need more grassroots activities 'back home,' where NEA members have the most influence."

When you make contact with your lawmakers, urge them to:

• Keep voucher provisions out of the reauthorized law;
• Fully fund IDEA;
• Improve the working conditions of educators (starting with reduced paperwork);
• Emphasize--and fund--professional development in the new law.

"Talk to other teachers and education support professionals about IDEA reauthorization," Anderson adds. "We need a grassroots investment in this campaign, involving a little bit of everybody's time and a lot of passion about making changes for kids."

To make your voice heard in the process to improve the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, complete an NEA questionnaire at www.nea.org/lac/idea/gr-idea.html.

And to receive an e-mail alert on NEA's progress in IDEA reauthorization, send a message to NEA staffer Patti Ralabate at pralabate@nea.org.

Kudos to...

. . . the Illinois Education Association-IEA, for winning lost wages and benefits--and a full school board apology--for former Smithton Education Association President Judy Hand, who was suspended for 30 days on bogus charges of violating the district's grade book policy. Some board members added to the damage by telling local residents that "other data" in Hand's personnel file justified the suspension--a charge that "was wrong," the apology noted. Hand believes she was targeted because of her Association advocacy.

. . . the Colorado Education Association, for winning representation elections for education support professionals in Canon City, Pueblo, and Montrose.

. . . the Keansburg (New Jersey) Teachers Association (KTA), honored by the New Jersey Education Association for bargaining and organizing gains. KTA has reduced the number of steps in its salary guide, increased starting teacher pay to $40,000 (in September 2004), and welcomed 63 teacher aides into its ranks--with full contractual benefits.

. . . the Capistrano (California) Unified Education Association, which, after more than a year without an agreement, has won a new three-year contract. The pact, which improves health benefits, will increase the salary schedule by 5.5 percent during the first two years, and by an amount equalling the state's cost-of-living adjustment in the third year. "Without the strong support of CUEA members, and the pressure put on the district by parents and the community, we would not have an agreement," says CUEA President Frank Weirath.

. . . education unions in France, which struck for a day in January to protest the national government's education "reform" program, which so far in 2003 has meant the dismissal of 5,600 "surveillants"--employees who maintain order in schools--and 20,000 teacher aides. The government has also scaled back recruitment of teachers in the "second degr?" (upper primary and pre-university schools), despite a dire staff shortage.

Californians Offer Five Big Ideas on IDEA

With full funding, safeguards for student and parent rights, and streamlined procedures, a new Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) can live up to its promise, say three special ed teachers on the California Teachers Association's IDEA Task Force. When asked about their own IDEA priorities, these educators stress the need to:

1. Focus on children, not procedures. Task force chair Diana Garchow, a resource specialist at Highland Elementary in Bakersfield and a member of the NEA Board of Directors notes that California school systems pile on the procedures (all timed and scripted) to prevent special ed teachers from making any one of 812 "procedural errors" that can land a district in legal hot water. "The paperwork must be cut," she says, "to stop the exodus of special education teachers from the profession."
   "We absolutely need to protect students' rights--we don't want to see them diminished," emphasizes Judy Jacobs, a resource specialist and president of the Ontario-Montclair Teachers Association. "But the paperwork is overwhelming. In response to court cases, districts keep coming up with more new forms to protect themselves."
2. Preserve Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). "The IEP is the cornerstone of special education and it should still drive decision making for every child," says Jacobs. "This is all about ensuring that we as a society continue to meet our ethical obligations to children and families."
   "I teach 'Johnny Jones,' not subjects," adds Garchow. "My job is to ensure the growth of each child. We can't lose IDEA's focus on 'free appropriate' education for each student."
3. Pay the full price of special education. It isn't cheap to fund an IEP's modifications, accommodations, goals and objectives, and staffing requirements. California districts pay $16,000-$17,000 annually for each student identified under IDEA, money that should, but often doesn't, come from federal coffers.
   Congress shouldn't "add new programs tied to 'accountability' without added funding," stresses Jacobs. "We need to protect special ed programs already in place--not replace and reconfigure without dollars."
4. Prevent special education students from dropping out. If IDEA winds up looking just like ESEA, special ed students could be tested annually at grade level without the help of readers, braille, or assistive technology--a sure road to "failure" and a disincentive to stay in school. "If we must test at grade level, we need accommodations for testing parallel to those we now make for instruction," says Garchow.
   Like his task force colleagues, Ken Johnson, a resource specialist in Colton, is nervous about the idea of assessing special ed students (currently evaluated by progress as well as paper-and-pencil tests) just like their general ed peers. "The curriculum shouldn't be watered down for special ed students--they're kids who learn differently," he notes. "But we need to keep looking at kids' progress in meeting goals and objectives in their IEPs. Standardized tests should not be the be-all and end-all."
5. Build bridges between general and special education. Regardless of the IDEA-related issue--student discipline, early intervention, or special ed dropout statistics that could quickly change a good school into a "low-performing" school--general education teachers have a direct stake in the reauthorization process.
   "If IDEA is reauthorized incorrectly, it will change the face of special education," shudders Garchow.
   "If an eligible child is not considered for special education or special ed disappears altogether," Garchow explains, "kids with special needs will still be in the classroom with a general education teacher, who will still be obligated to make 'adequate yearly progress' under ESEA--with no assistance from a special ed teacher or paraeducator. Special education teachers are already leaving our schools because of the paperwork and workload."

For more: CTA IDEA Task Force Chair Diana Garchow can be reached at dgarchow@aol.com.