I received this letter from U.S.Senator Jeff Sessions in response to an email I sent to him opposing his proposed amendment to the disciplinary portion of IDEA. I am posting it so if his amendment does pass the House, all the parents who read here will have his interpretation ot his law in case of problems with schools that may arise. This is a verbatum copy of his letter.
Crystal
Dear Ms. Schall,
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about my amendments to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) discipline procedures.
IDEA has been in existence for 25 years. The principal goal of the law was to encourage schools to mainstream students with disabilities. Schools have responded positively to this challenge and are expending large sums of money to meet this goal, but they cannot continue to be forced to keep children who are disruptive, aggressive, and violent in classrooms. Anyone who understands teaching in this modern age understands that maintaining discipline in the classroom is a constant challenge for teachers. Providing protected classifications for some children who misbehave undermines the credibility of the teacher and the moral integrity of the school and classroom rules. Teachers frequently tell me that the children just cannot understand why one child is held to a much lower standard of behavior than the other students.
On June 14, the United States Senate approved my amendment that seeks to address this problem. My amendment was carefully considered and narrowly tailored to allow schools to discipline IDEA students in the same manner as non-IDEA students, only if the behavior that led to discipline action is not related to the child’s disability. If the bad behavior is related to the child’s disability, the school will be required to continue to provide educational services to the child. No child will be denied educational services for behavior related to their disability. My amendment also would provide an option for parents of children with disabilities to determine whether to keep their child in their current educational placement of move their child to an alternative educational environment, whichever the parents feel is better suited to the needs of their child. While this type of option is already available under current law, schools routinely deny this right to parents. My language would streamline this process and give parents more options for their child’s education. The parents of the child and the school would still have to agree on this decision. I believe this is a reasonable proposal that will allow teachers to gain control of their classroom, while assuring that IDEA students still have access to the education they deserve.
The Senate also recently considered another shortfall of IDEA. The federal government was supposed to pay for IDEA when it was passed years ago. Unfortunately, Congress has not kept up its end of the deal. This is why, in the past, I have supported amendments and provisions that would increase the federal funding for IDEA. You will be glad to know that on May 3, 2001, the Senate passed an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill, which I supported, that authorizes full funding for IDEA. Introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), this amendment amends IDEA to authorize funding to reach the federal government’s goal of providing 40 percent of the national average per pupil expenditure. This new authorization is an important step in assisting state and local educators in meeting the goals established under IDEA.
Thank you for contacting me and for your insight. I hope you will continue to keep me advised of your thoughts on the federal role in education so that we can assist our teachers and schools in reaching their goals.
Very truly yours,
Jeff Sessions
United States Senator
All well and good. Let’s make the child responsible for the teacher’s lack of training/education once again!! We recently ran up against this phenomena in a Due Process Hearing regarding our nephew. It amazes me how school districts attempt to make it seem as though students with disabilities are the problem and not their weak teaching methods. As someone who has worked with people having many varied disabilities for 17 years (including aggressive behaviors), I can say that if I were “threatened” by these folks I would change feilds. Perhaps if these so-called professionals were more proactive and less reactive, most of these incidents of aggressiveness could be avoided in the first place! How about the IDEA Law being ammended to insure that the people working with our children have the training required to be able to do the job well. That’s what needs to be added………..accountability!Crystal Schall wrote:
>
> I received this letter from U.S.Senator Jeff Sessions in
> response to an email I sent to him opposing his proposed
> amendment to the disciplinary portion of IDEA. I am posting
> it so if his amendment does pass the House, all the parents
> who read here will have his interpretation ot his law in case
> of problems with schools that may arise. This is a verbatum
> copy of his letter.
>
> Crystal
>
>
> Dear Ms. Schall,
>
> Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about my
> amendments to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
> (IDEA) discipline procedures.
>
> IDEA has been in existence for 25 years. The principal goal
> of the law was to encourage schools to mainstream students
> with disabilities. Schools have responded positively to this
> challenge and are expending large sums of money to meet this
> goal, but they cannot continue to be forced to keep children
> who are disruptive, aggressive, and violent in classrooms.
> Anyone who understands teaching in this modern age
> understands that maintaining discipline in the classroom is a
> constant challenge for teachers. Providing protected
> classifications for some children who misbehave undermines
> the credibility of the teacher and the moral integrity of the
> school and classroom rules. Teachers frequently tell me that
> the children just cannot understand why one child is held to
> a much lower standard of behavior than the other students.
>
> On June 14, the United States Senate approved my amendment
> that seeks to address this problem. My amendment was
> carefully considered and narrowly tailored to allow schools
> to discipline IDEA students in the same manner as non-IDEA
> students, only if the behavior that led to discipline action
> is not related to the child’s disability. If the bad
> behavior is related to the child’s disability, the school
> will be required to continue to provide educational services
> to the child. No child will be denied educational services
> for behavior related to their disability. My amendment also
> would provide an option for parents of children with
> disabilities to determine whether to keep their child in
> their current educational placement of move their child to an
> alternative educational environment, whichever the parents
> feel is better suited to the needs of their child. While
> this type of option is already available under current law,
> schools routinely deny this right to parents. My language
> would streamline this process and give parents more options
> for their child’s education. The parents of the child and
> the school would still have to agree on this decision. I
> believe this is a reasonable proposal that will allow
> teachers to gain control of their classroom, while assuring
> that IDEA students still have access to the education they
> deserve.
>
> The Senate also recently considered another shortfall of
> IDEA. The federal government was supposed to pay for IDEA
> when it was passed years ago. Unfortunately, Congress has
> not kept up its end of the deal. This is why, in the past, I
> have supported amendments and provisions that would increase
> the federal funding for IDEA. You will be glad to know that
> on May 3, 2001, the Senate passed an amendment to the
> Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill,
> which I supported, that authorizes full funding for IDEA.
> Introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Chuck Hagel
> (R-NE), this amendment amends IDEA to authorize funding to
> reach the federal government’s goal of providing 40 percent
> of the national average per pupil expenditure. This new
> authorization is an important step in assisting state and
> local educators in meeting the goals established under IDEA.
>
> Thank you for contacting me and for your insight. I hope you
> will continue to keep me advised of your thoughts on the
> federal role in education so that we can assist our teachers
> and schools in reaching their goals.
>
> Very truly yours,
>
> Jeff Sessions
> United States Senator