IDEA 2004
“To ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living” and “to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and the parents of such children are protected…” Section 1400(d)(1)(A)
“Effective transition services to promote successful post-school…education.” Section 1400(c)(14)
Wrightslaw From Emotions to Advocacy 2nd Edition, pages 151-152:
Child Find requires school districts to identify, locate, and evaluate all children with disabilities. If a child is eligible for special education services under Section 1401(3), the child does not have to have a specific disability label in order to receive special education services. The school does not have to determine the child’s “label” before providing services. Schools often spend months evaluating a child before providing any special education services. During this time, the child falls further behind.
Congress changed the language about participation in assessments in IDEA 2004 to: “All children with disabilities are included in all general State and district wide assessment programs…with appropriate accommodations and alternate assessments where necessary. The child’s IEP team, including the parents, makes all decisions about accommodations and alternate assessments.
The requirements that schools include all children with disabilities in all State and district assessments may have a negative impact on those schools that fail to use research based methods to teach children to read, write, spell, and do arithmetic, and that fail to assess children’s progress frequently.
Definitions Section 1401
(30) Specific Learning Disability
(A) In General. The term ‘specific learning disability’ means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.
(B) Disorders Included. Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.
(C) Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
Specific Learning Disabilities Section 1414(b)(6)(A)
“Notwithstanding section 1407(b) of this title, when determining whether a child has a specific learning disability as defined in section 1401 of this title, a local educational agency shall not be required to take into consideration whether a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, or mathematical reasoning.”
Wrightslaw From Emotions to Advocacy 2nd Edition, page 143
Congress did not change the definition of “specific learning disability” in IDEA 2004. However, Congress did change the language about evaluations for specific learning disabilities. Schools do not have to find a discrepancy between IQ and educational achievement to find a child eligible for special education services as a child with a specific learning disability.
Many terms used to describe disabilities in IDEA are those used during the 1970’s when Congress enacted Public Law 94-142. The term “minimal brain dysfunction” is not Attention Deficit Disorder.” “Dyslexia” is a language learning disability in reading, writing, spelling, and/or math. From a legal perspective, dyslexia is a learning disability that adversely affects educational performance.
ODE Due Process Database Case# SE-2269-2009
Revised IDEA regulations state that a child need not fail or be retained in a course or grade in order to be eligible for services. 34 C.F.R. Section 300.101(c)(1)
Section 504
Wrightslaw From Emotions to Advocacy 2nd Edition, pages 196-197:
The language of ADA tracks Section 504 and explains that the remedies, procedures, and rights under the ADA are the same as under the Rehabilitation Act. Except for accessibility of buildings, and modifications and accommodations in testing, compared to IDEA 2004, Section 504 and ADA provide fewer protections and benefits to children with disabilities.
Unlike IDEA, Section 504 and ADA do not ensure that a child with a disability will receive an individualized educational program that is designed to meet the child’s unique needs and provide the child with educational benefit, so the child will be prepared “for employment and independent living.”
The child with a Section 504 Plan has fewer rights and protections than the child who receives special education services under IDEA. The child who receives special education services under IDEA is automatically protected under Section 504.
Unlike Section 504, IDEA requires that parents be participants in all meetings about their child’s eligibility, special education program, and placements.
No Child Left Behind
Wrightslaw From Emotions to Advocacy 2nd Edition, page 201:
No Child Left Behind focuses on teaching young children, including children with disabilities, to read. One goal of NCLB is that all children will be reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
If you are a parent, you know that reading skills of most children with disabilities are deficient. Sadly, many schools continue to use reading programs that are not effective in teaching children with disabilities to read.
NCLB provides funds for states and school districts to use “in establishing reading programs for students in kindergarten through grade 3 that are based on scientifically based reading research, to ensure that every student can read at grade level or above not later than the end of grade 3.” (20 U.S.C. § 6361)
NCLB legal definition of reading:
“Reading is a complex system of deriving meaning from print that requires all of the following:
(A) The skills and knowledge to understand how phonemes, or speech sounds, are connected to print,
(B) The ability to decode unfamiliar words,
(C) The ability to read fluently,
(D) Sufficient background information and vocabulary to foster reading comprehension,
(E) The development of appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print,
(F) The development and maintenance of a motivation to read.” (20 U.S.C. § 6368(5))
NCLB defines the 5 essential components of reading instruction:
“The term ‘essential components of reading instruction’ means explicit and systematic instruction in:
(A) Phonemic awareness,
(B) Phonics
(C) Vocabulary development
(D) Reading fluency, including oral reading skills, and
(E) Reading comprehension strategies.” (20 U.S.C. § 6368(3))
NCLB defines diagnostic reading assessments:
“The term ‘diagnostic reading assessment’ means an assessment that is:
(i) Valid, reliable, and based on scientifically based reading research; and
(ii) Used for the purpose of:
(I) identifying a child’s specific areas of strengths and weaknesses so that the child has learned to read by the end of grade 3;
(II) determining any difficulties that a child may have in learning to read and the potential cause of such difficulties; and
(III) helping to determine possible reading intervention strategies and related special needs.” (20 U.S.C. § 6368(7))
NCLB defines scientifically based reading research:
“The term ‘scientifically based reading research’ means research that:
(A) applies rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading development, reading instruction, and reading difficulties; and
(B) includes research that:
(i) employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;
(ii) involves rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn;
(iii) relies on measurements or observational methods that provide valid data across evaluators and observers and across multiple measurements and observations; and
(iv) has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review.” (20 U.S.C. § 6368(6))
The above definitions of reading and research based reading programs apply to all programs, all schools, all children, all the time. These terms define and describe the minimum requirements for your child’s reading program at school. The timeline for teaching a child to read fluently is at the end of grade three.
NCLB and IDEA require schools to provide children with disabilities with appropriate accommodations on all state and district tests.