COPAA COMMENTS ON PROPOSED U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REGULATIONS
February-March 2006

No Child Left Behind Regulations
On February 28, 2006, COPAA submitted comments to the Department of Education about the "Two Percent" Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which would amend the No Child Left Behind Act regulations and the proposed IDEA regulations.

COPAA expressed concerns that regulations, permitting almost 20% of students with disabilities to be assessed against modified achievement standards, could cause them to receive inferior and inadequate educations. When children placed under the 1% and 2% caps are combined, it appears that almost 30% of children with disabilities—or almost 1.8 million children—are at risk of being denied the promise of the No Child Left Behind Act.

COPAA also expressed concerns that in making changes to proposed IDEA regulation § 300.160 regarding assessments, that the Department protect students' rights to take the most challenging educational assessment possible with reasonable accommodations. Available here (PDF, 13 pages, 80KB).

IDEA Pilot Program Regulations

On Monday, March 6, COPAA submitted comments to the Department of Education on proposed regulations regarding the paperwork reduction pilot and the multi-year IEP pilot. The pilots have the potential to affect millions of children, as up to 15 states could take part in each.

Paperwork Reduction Pilot
COPAA urged the Department to take special care to ensure students do not receive inferior educations and lose educational rights under the paperwork pilot. Such an experiment would impose a severe cost on our nation's economy, as students fail to obtain the educational skills they need after graduation and the functional skills they need to live independently and succeed.

COPAA also pointed out that the Department cannot waive IEP requirements under the paperwork pilot because this would contradict IDEA's requirement that all students receive FAPE, which statutorily includes the right to an IEP. Paperwork reduction plans should only be approved if they fulfill IDEA's requirement of increasing time for instruction and improving educational and functional results for children. It is not enough to simply reduce paperwork. COPAA's Comments on the Paperwork Reduction Pilot are available here (PDF, 11 pages, 68KB).

Multi-Year IEP Pilot
The Multi-Year IEP Pilot would allow States to establish 3-year IEPs for students. COPAA expressed concern that parents not be pressured into consenting to such IEPs. Special care must be taken to ensure children in the program do not receive inferior educations. Children with disabilities have the same right to a challenging, effective education as all children in America deserve. COPAA's comments on the Multi-Year IEP Pilot are here (PDF, 7 pages, 52KB).

COPAA's extensive comments on the complete set of proposed Part B IDEA '04 regulations, submitted in September 2005, are available here: http://www.copaa.org/pdf/COPAACommSept6.pdf

More IDEA '04 resources, including legislative history and comparison of IDEA '97 and IDEA '04, are available here: http://www.copaa.org/news/idea04.html