DINF Web Posted on December 15, 1997

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1995

Many schools, school districts, and States around the nation are actively engaged in education improvement. The Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, and the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) promote effective strategies for education improvement based on raising academic and occupational standards and encouraging students to work hard to meet them, improving teaching, and strengthening family involvement for all students, including students with disabilities. To ensure that children with disabilities actually benefit from these reform efforts, we should strive for a system of education that helps all children, including children with disabilities, learn to challenging standards. This reauthorization can help to foster the development of such a system.

To understand what it really means to align IDEA with federal, State, and local school reform efforts, it helps to look at the ingredients for making schools better. These include: 1) increasing expectations and standards and improving assessments of student progress; 2) comprehensive efforts and plans to help students make the necessary progress toward higher standards; 3) high-quality, on-going training for teachers and other professionals; 4) safe and disciplined environments in which learning can take place; 5) appropriate technical assistance; 6) whole-school, rather than categorical, improvement efforts that promote flexibility and responsibility at the local school level; and 7) links and partnerships among schools, parents and communities. On one level, alignment could mean the linking of special education programs and processes with each of these components. On a deeper level, however, it means promoting the transformation of our current categorical education system into better schools for all children that meet the individual needs of each child.

What We Would Like To See

We envision an education system that sets higher expectations for all students, gives all students the opportunity to learn to challenging standards, and takes responsibility and is accountable for the success of all children. To the extent possible, students with disabilities would have meaningful and effective access to the same curricula, aligned with the State's content standards, that other students are receiving and, with appropriate modifications, be included in State and local assessments. Individualized education programs (IEPs) would focus on enabling students with disabilities to learn to challenging standards.

The needs of students with disabilities would be considered as part of State and local planning for regular education and not regarded solely as special education's responsibility. All teachers working with children with disabilities would be trained to teach to challenging standards. Classrooms would be safe and disciplined. Schools would foster communication among parents and teachers. Students would receive needed health and social services through collaboration among families, schools, other public agencies, and other providers. And the needs of all children would be considered as States revise licensing and certification standards for teachers, as local education agencies reform governance and management, and as schools mobilize the involvement of families and the community in improving teaching and learning for every child.

In this context, special education would not be regarded as a separate program or place for children with disabilities but a source of special education and related services for children with disabilities who need them for a meaningful and effective education. The strategies we describe below are critical to the development of a system that meets this vision.

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