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Protecting
the Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities
Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act over three decades ago. The law is specifically designed "to
ensure that all children with disabilities have available to
them a free appropriate public education . . . 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 parents of such children
are protected." COPAA is committed to making these
two purposes a reality for the millions of children with disabilities
and their parents.
Today, there are 7.1 million children with disabilities in America.
Many students with disabilities receive good educations; however,
far too many receive educations that are weak and inadequate. School
districts fail to identify children with disabilities and provide
ineffective services to others. IDEA's enforcement
depends on the right of parents to seek a hearing before an impartial
hearing officer. This right is only meaningful if parents
can exercise it. But parents — whom Congress envisioned
as equal partners in developing their children's educational
programs — face a playing field that is neither level nor
fair. COPAA is committed to creating a level playing field
for parents, and to ensuring that children with disabilities
receive the same high-quality education as all children. The
time for equal opportunity for children with disabilities is
now.
Contacting Congress and the
Legislative Process
Effective citizen involvement is the key to protecting the rights
of children with disabilities. You can write, call and
meet with members of Congress and their staff to advocate for
the rights of children with disabilities.
Call Congress 202-224-3121
Ask for the Office of your Senator or Representative,
and then ask for the Aide who handles Education or
Disability matters. You must know the name of
your Representative or Senator. Look it up
here:
Representatives Senators
To find local phone numbers, use these links or the
blue pages in your phone book.
TTY: 202-225-1904 |
House of Representatives
Use this button to email your Representative (Congressperson). All you need
is your zip code! |
Senate
Use this button to find your Senators and send
an email using their official contact forms. Click
on "Choose a State" to find out who your
two Senators are. |
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You can also meet
with members of Congress and their staff.
You can also meet with members
of Congress and their staff. Forming relationships with staff
in Congressional offices is important. You don't
have to come all the way to Washington, either. Meeting
regularly with staff in local Congressional offices helps keep
them abreast of special education issues and legislation of
importance to you. You can find local offices in the blue pages
of your phone book or through the websites of your Congressional
Representatives (go to www.house.gov/ and
use the Find Your Representative function in the upper left
corner) and Senators (go to www.senate.gov and
click on Senators).
Information about
How to Contact Congress, with links, is available as a downloadable
PDF here.
Use
it in meetings and to educate fellow advocates.
Important Congressional
Committees.
Two
Committees have primary jurisdiction over matters related to
special education. The Senate
Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP)
is chaired by Senator Edward M. Kennedy; the ranking member
is Senator Michael B. Enzi. The House
Education and Labor Committee
is chaired by Representative George Miller and the ranking
member is Buck McKeon. The two committee websites have
full lists of the membership.
Track Legislation.
Once legislation is introduced, you
can look up bills and track them on the Library of Congress' website,
www.congress.gov.
Overview of Congressional
Process.
Learn
how Congress passes legislation and how bills become laws here.
Communication Tips
Read
some tips on writing
effective emails and letters to Congress here (courtesy
of Leaders in Disability Policy).
COPAA's Major Legislative
Priorities
- Reinstate
Prevailing Parents' Right To Expert Witness Fees.
Few parents can afford the
thousands of dollars needed for expert witnesses at hearings.
Congress should override Arlington
C.S.D. v. Murphy (2006) and restore
the original intent of the Handicapped Children's Protection
Act of 1986. COPAA strongly supports H.R. 2740, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act which would override Murphy. More
- Make the
Burden of Proof Fair and Equitable.
Lacking
the resources and expertise available to school districts,
parents are at a distinct disadvantage in due process hearings.
Congress should override Schaffer v. Weast (2005) and place
the burden of proof on school districts as the majority of Courts
of Appeals had done prior to 2005. More
- Provide
A Good Education to All Children with Disabilities.
Congress should ensure the IDEA
is properly interpreted to require that children with disabilities
receive educations that provide meaningful benefit. America's
7.1 million children with disabilities deserve a good education
that will enable them to achieve maximum independence as adults. Many
do not receive it. More
- Restore
Attorneys Fees When Parents Settle.
Congress
should override Buckhannon
v. West Virginia (2000) and
restore the rights of parents and other civil rights plaintiffs
to recover attorneys fees if they settle but their hearing
request was the catalyst for the defendant to provide a remedy.
Buckhannon has made it much harder for parents without substantial
financial resources to pursue their children's educational rights.
More
- Allow Parents to Properly Pursue Ongoing Violations.
When
a child has been denied a free appropriate public education for many
years and the violation is ongoing, Congress should make clear that
parents can pursue a remedy to make their child whole for all of the
years. Some children may languish for years with inappropriate
educations, falling further and further behind. More
- Protect
the Right to Observe in the Classroom.
Parents
of children with disabilities and their experts often
need to observe the classroom to monitor provision of FAPE to
their children or to otherwise enforce their children's rights. For
many years they were welcome in the classroom, but
today, many school districts try to prevent or sharply limit
their right to observe. More
- Make
IDEA's Procedural Protections Effective.
Increasingly,
parents of children with disabilities confront an unlevel
playing field that does little to assure a fair hearing
process. Resolution
sessions fail to achieve their objective and are misused as fishing
expeditions; school districts refuse to respond to due process
complaints; and motions for insufficiency are used as obstacles
to a hearing. More
- Stop
Abuse of Children in Schools.
Congress
should pass legislation to end the use of restraints,
seclusion, and other aversive interventions upon children with
disabilities in our nation's schools. Abuse is a violation of fundamental
human rights. Every child has a right to positive behavioral
interventions. More
- Disciplinary
Rights.
COPAA has
received reports that children with disabilities are
being ejected into alternative schools, denied access
to an education with their peers and appropriate educational
services. Behavioral Intervention Plans are often ineffective;
Functional Behavioral Assessments, poorly conducted. Increasingly,
school districts are sending children to face criminal
charges for relatively minor incidents.
Highlights of Recent COPAA
Actions
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July 2009 COPAA thanks Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Pete Sessions for introducing the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act in 2007 and supports reintroduction of the legislation. Read COPAA’s letters to Congressman Van Hollen and Congressman Sessions. The legislation would allow prevailing parents to recover expert fees. Few parents can afford to pay for the technical and medical expert witnesses needed at a hearing. COPAA also sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman George Miller, Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee asking them to support the bill.
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June 2009 COPAA leads over 200 organizations in supporting the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. COPAA also circulated a petition signed by over 2,100 parents, family members, friends, advocates, and attorneys for children of disabilities urging Congress to pass the Act. Many individuals left comments describing how the inability to recover expert witness fees has been particularly harmful. More
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May 2009 COPAA submitted a Letter for the Record to the House Education Committee as part of its hearings on Examining the Abusive and Deadly Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Schools. COPAA condemned the use of such techniques and urged Congress to take action against them. More
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April 2009 COPAA releases report asking Congress to stop the use of restraints, seclusion, and aversives upon children with disabilities in school. The report entitled, Unsafe In The Schoolhouse: Abuse Of Children With Disabilities, details over 150 incidents of the use of abusive interventions against children with disabilities in school. The report also includes suggested legislative remedies. Read COPAA’s report.
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January 2009 COPAA thanks
Senator Edward Kennedy and Congressman John Lewis for introducing
the Civil Rights Act legislation in prior Congresses, and
supports reintroduction of the legislation. Read
COPAA's Senate letter. The legislation would
allow prevailing parents to recover expert fees and override Buckhannon, permitting
recovery of attorneys' fees when parents' cases
settle but caused the school district to change its conduct
and provide relief.
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December
2008: COPAA met with the
Presidential Transition Team to discuss the need for changes
to the Department of Education's policies in order
to provide effective educations to children with disabilities;
improve and protect due process and evaluation rights; and,
strengthen parents' rights and IDEA enforcement. More.
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August
2008: COPAA issues
statement regarding the need to protect the educational and
civil rights of children with disabilities, including legislation
to reverse Supreme Court decisions which have placed parents
on an unleveled playing field; fund the IDEA; stop restraints
and seclusion; and ensure that every child with a disability
receives an appropriate education. More
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July
2008: COPAA submits
comments on proposed IDEA regulations. Among other
concerns, COPAA strongly urges the Department to withdraw
the proposed regulation that would allow states to decide
if non-attorneys can represent parents in due process hearings
and stressed the importance of protecting the rights of
parents and children when parents withdraw consent for
special-education services. More
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February 2008: COPAA
and over 100 organizations nationwide ask Congressional Representatives
to cosponsor the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. More
Complete Archive
of COPAA Public Policy Actions is
available here.
Other Resources
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State Regulations. COPAA's guidance
for advocacy on State regulations implementing IDEA 2004. More
Materials
about State regulations and requirements, including due process
hearing tiers, evaluation timelines, and links to State Departments
of Education, State special education regulations, and State
due process hearing decisions. More
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IDEA 2004. COPAA's extensive webpage
containing IDEA 2004 information and resources. These
include the statute, complete legislative history, regulations,
regulation commentary, line-by-line comparison of IDEA 2004
and IDEA '97,
and other materials. More
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COPAA's complementary efforts in filing amicus curiae
briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and State
Supreme Courts. More
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COPAA is also a member of the Consortium
of Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) and
collaborates with other organizations in the consortium to
protect students' rights and ensure equality of opportunity. For
more
information about CCD's Education efforts, click
here.
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