New IDEA Bill Clarifies Parental Role in School Meetings for Special Education Students

July 1998

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On June 4, 1997, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997 was signed into law. This law contained numerous amendments to the original IDEA law passed in the 1970s, attempting to address some of the weaknesses of the old legislation. New provisions cover such issues as discipline, performance goals and indicators, the Individual Education Plan (IEP), student evaluations, race disproportionality, and parent participation. For an overview of the new legislation, see the Office of Special Education Programs: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/IDEA/geninfo.html

The issue of parental notification is of key importance because schools have often been confused over when they must notify parents in discussions regarding students. This confusion occurs in the context of a larger push to increase parental involvement in schools across the country. According to IDEA ’97, "in all states, parents will now be included in groups making eligibility and placement decisions about children with disabilities." Previously, in some states, parents only had a right to be included in IEP meetings. Parents also have a right to consent to periodic re-evaluations of their children's program, in addition to initial evaluations.

Currently, parents of children with disabilities rarely get regular reports from schools on their child's progress in achieving academic goals set forth in the IEP. The new law aims to increase parental involvement by requiring the regular progress reports that are commonly made for other children.

While these are important steps for the IDEA legislation, it is important to keep in mind that all parents have particular rights and responsibilities regarding their children’s education. The National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has issued standards regarding parent involvement in schools which address these further:
http://www.pta.org/programs/invstand.htm

For more information:

IDEA 97: Your Rights and Responsibilities
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/idea97_may98.html

Office of Special Education Programs: IDEA ’97 Home Page
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/IDEA/index.html

Credits

Prepared for Parent News by Dawn Ramsburg.

Published monthly by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Children's Research Center, 51 Gerty Drive, Champaign, IL 61820-7469. This publication was funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. DERR93002007. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Department of Education.

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