STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS ON THE SPECIAL EDUCATION COMMISSION REPORT

The failure of the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education to address the serious lack of funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) casts a large shadow over the many practical proposals for simplification and deregulation contained in the report. The Commission's call to combine federal, state, and local funding into vouchers also raises serious concerns. Finally, the Commission fails to address many of the law's most serious operational problems.

 First, the Commission's inattention to the federal government's funding responsibilities is a fundamental omission that calls into question the seriousness with which the group took its charge to address underlying problems in the special education program. Its report simply skips over the issue of "excess cost," by calling for further study. This omission is matched only by the report's failure to analyze major health-related costs associated with serving disabled school children. The report, moreover, omits any analysis of the federal government's restrictive school-based Medicaid policies and the impact they will have on supporting services required under the 1997 IDEA amendments. The "high cost" child recommendation offers a zero-sum proposal that takes funds out of one pocket and puts it in the other. The Commission is clear about opposing mandatory full funding of IDEA but presents little analysis or research on how local school systems are supposed to handle the short-fall.

Second, the Commission recommends authorizing states to use federal IDEA funding to support special education vouchers and supplemental services. The Commission calls for states to mandate these choice options in low-performing schools or school districts using provisions that are parallel to No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The Commission does not limit school choice options to public schools, however, as does NCLB nor does it address how districts are to meet the law's "Adequate Yearly Progress" and accountability requirements. Finally, the Commission calls for federal and state authority to use "all available revenue . not just IDEA funds" for special education choice options that would authorize vouchers ranging from about $4,500 per child in some states to over $10,000 per child in others.

Third, the Commission relies on the nation's teacher training institutions to solve personnel shortages in urban schools without providing any meaningful national strategy. The report also fails to address the needs of English Language Learners in special education. Finally, the report does not adequately explain its proposals for IEP revisions, its proposed changes in transition services, or its novel evaluation and assessment suggestions. The Council agrees, nonetheless, with a number of the Commission's recommendations including the report's focus on results, simplification, deregulation, early intervention and its concerns about the over-identification of African American students. The Council hopes that the Senate and House hearings will elicit more details from the Commission on these and other issues. Immediate Release: July 9, 2002 Contact: Jeff Simering at 202-393-2427