Hi guys I'll try to keep this brief. On April 29th there is a national call in day scheduled for parents and advocates who oppose the House IDEA Reauthorization Bill-HR1350 you can reach your representative at http://congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/>. Fax numbers are also available at this web site. Then please call the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your rep. Calls to the White House with the same message would also be helpful it's 202-456-5594. The bill is very dangerous for children with disabilities and their families. It drastically weakens their rights through a variety of proposed changes such as:
*It eliminates short term objectives in the IEP program
*It changes the discipline provisions significantly by allowing schools unilateral authority to change the placement of students without regard to a student's disability.
*It makes three year IEP's optional for schools and parents.
*It does not fully fund IDEA nor does it make IDEA fundig mandatory:
*It allows Governors to set the amount of attorney fees that parents may be reimbursed when they win due process proceedings.
*It allows ten states to have "paperwork" requirements waived thus giving them authority to change various aspects of the Federal law without public review.
*It requires states to offer binding arbitration with no appeal provision and establishes a one year statutue of limitations to resolve disputes which is detrimental to children.
Sorry this is long but this is so important. You can go to www.nationalparentscenters.org for more info. I know the advocates I work with are very worried. Thanks guys.
*It eliminates short term objectives in the IEP program
*It changes the discipline provisions significantly by allowing schools unilateral authority to change the placement of students without regard to a student's disability.
*It makes three year IEP's optional for schools and parents.
*It does not fully fund IDEA nor does it make IDEA fundig mandatory:
*It allows Governors to set the amount of attorney fees that parents may be reimbursed when they win due process proceedings.
*It allows ten states to have "paperwork" requirements waived thus giving them authority to change various aspects of the Federal law without public review.
*It requires states to offer binding arbitration with no appeal provision and establishes a one year statutue of limitations to resolve disputes which is detrimental to children.
Sorry this is long but this is so important. You can go to www.nationalparentscenters.org for more info. I know the advocates I work with are very worried. Thanks guys.
