Individuals with Disabilities Ed Act Reauthorization: Where Do We Really Stand?

July 5, 2002

SCOPE AND PURPOSE:

On February 11, 2002, NCD published a working document on the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The paper, IDEA Reauthorization: A Working Paper, identified four areas that NCD determined to be particularly critical to the implementation of IDEA: eligibility and over representation of racial and ethnic minorities; funding of IDEA; monitoring and enforcement; and discipline. NCD poses a number of questions for each of these areas.

In preparing this paper, NCD reviewed public proceedings over the past two years, including hearings held by the White House Commission on Excellence in Special Education, Committees and Subcommittees in the House of Representatives and Senate, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, along with publications from the National Academy of Science, the Harvard Civil Rights Law Project, and the General Accounting Office. NCD invited the public to respond to the questions in a public comment period, and youth with disabilities, through the NCD Youth Advisory Council on experiences in special education.

Where Do We Really Stand? is a compilation of the public statements–excerpts that are particularly relevant to the NCD issues and provide guidance in answering the questions.