[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 28, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S746-S747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JEFFORDS (for himself, Mr. Frist, and Mrs. Hutchison):
  S. 216. A bill to amend the Individuals With Disabilities Education 
Act to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1998 through 2002, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources.


   THE INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1997

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, with my colleague, Senator Frist, I am 
introducing the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Amendments 
of 1997. This legislation is identical to S. 1578, which was reported 
out of the Labor and Human Resources Committee in the last Congress. 
Senator Frist did a tremendous job in assisting, getting that prepared 
and passed out of committee. Unfortunately, the bill did not pass in 
the last legislative session.

  We are introducing this legislation today so everyone will have a 
common frame of reference. However, I want to make it very clear to my 
colleagues in the Senate and to my colleagues and friends within the 
education and disability community across the Nation that this 
legislation is not perfect and it can and will be improved. This is the 
beginning of the process, not the end.
  I am well aware that there are still issues to be resolved and I 
intend to work with my colleagues to examine these issues and to move 
forward with revisions to this important law that are commonsense 
solutions to issues which are very real at the local school level.
  We are aided in this effort by the majority leader, who is committed 
to helping us achieve the broadest based consensus on a final project, 
one that has the support of families of children with disabilities and 
educators, but also of all Members of Congress and the President. We 
have set an ambitious schedule for completing our work on IDEA, and by 
introducing the IDEA Amendments of 1997 today, we are taking a very 
important first step.
  IDEA was originally enacted in 1975. I was a Member of the House at 
the time, and participated in the development of this landmark law. It 
was a response to court decisions that created a patchwork of legal 
standings, which in turn generated considerable uncertainty about 
rights and responsibilities. IDEA guaranteed each child with a 
disability access to a free, appropriate public education, and we all 
support that goal. In that sense, the legislation has clearly stood the 
test of time. But it has not in terms of the level of funding support 
that we promised to the States to assist them in meeting their 
obligation to educate children with disabilities.
  In IDEA, Congress promised to contribute 40 percent of the cost of 
educating children with disabilities. Our colleague, Senator Gregg, has 
kept our feet to the fire, reminding us that we should keep our 
promise. In last year's appropriations measure we were able to garner 
large increases for this program. We must continue our effort to reach 
our full Federal commitment.
  After 22 years, I think it is appropriate to thoroughly review the 
administrative and fiscal demands that are associated with providing a 
free appropriate education to children with disabilities. The 
population of students demanding assistance has changed significantly, 
but the law has not provided enough flexibility to States to meet those 
changing demands.
  The writing is on the wall. If we do not make needed changes to IDEA 
now, based on common sense, school districts and parents will 
increasingly turn to the courts to get the answers. School districts 
will do so in hope of getting relief from or clarification of their 
responsibilities. The parents will do so in hope of procuring the 
services that they believe their child needs. Since the genesis of IDEA 
lay in avoiding litigation, true to its intent to do so today, we have 
an opportunity, through the reauthorization of IDEA, to ensure the 
emphasis will shift once again and remain on educating children, well 
into the next century.
  If we work together, we have the power to ease the pressure on local 
communities and States. Through the reauthorization of IDEA, we have 
the power to give educators incentives and opportunities to educate 
children with disabilities, including those at risk of failing, with 
less bureaucracy and meaningful accountability. Let us do it now.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Individuals with Disabilities Education 
Act, commonly known as IDEA, is a civil rights law that ensures that 
children with disabilities have access to a free appropriate public 
education. This 22-year-old law has been a great success.
  During the 104th Congress, I served as Chairman of the Subcommittee 
on Disability Policy. In that capacity, I worked extensively on a 
bipartisan, common sense approach to reauthorizing this vital law, but 
time ran out before the full Senate could vote on this comprehensive 
bill.
  Today, Senator Jeffords and I are picking up where we left off by 
introducing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments 
of 1997. The IDEA Amendments of 1997, which will serve as the starting 
point, is the very bill that I introduced last year and that was passed 
unanimously by the Labor and Human Resources Committee on March 21, 
1996.
  We are introducing the IDEA Amendments of 1997 not because the law is 
failing, but because it is succeeding.
  These amendments reflect the recognition that our Nation's schools 
are moving past the initial challenge of how to educate children with 
disabilities to today's challenge of how to educate children with 
disabilities so that they may become productive, independent citizens. 
The IDEA Amendments of 1997 will help the Nation's schools succeed in 
that.
  Twenty-two years ago, before IDEA, a newborn with a disability had 
little hope of receiving help during the critical early years of 
development; children with disabilities who went to school were 
segregated in buildings away from their siblings and peers; and many 
young people with disabilities were destined to spend their lives in 
institutions.
  Young people with less-obvious disabilities, like learning 
disabilities and attention deficit disorder, were denied access to 
public education because they were considered too disruptive or unruly. 
These children tended to grow up on the streets and at home with no 
consistent access to an appropriate education.
  Today, infants and toddlers with disabilities receive early 
intervention services; many children with disabilities attend school 
together with children without disabilities; and many young people with 
disabilities learn study skills, life skills and work skills that will 
allow them to be more independent and productive adults.
  Children without disabilities are learning first hand that disability 
is a natural part of the human experience, and they are benefiting from 
individualized education techniques and strategies developed by the 
Nation's special educators.
  Children with disabilities are now much more likely to be valued 
members of school communities, and the Nation can look forward to a day 
when the children with disabilities currently in school will be 
productive members of our community.
  As a nation, we have come to see our citizens with disabilities as 
contributing members of society, not as victims to be pitied.
  As a nation, we have begun to see that those of us who happen to have 
disabilities also have gifts to share, and are active participants in 
American society who must have opportunities to learn.
  While there is no doubt that the Nation is accomplishing its goals to 
provide a free, appropriate public education to children with 
disabilities, many challenges remain, and we have made an effort to 
deal with them in the IDEA Amendments of 1997.
  IDEA was originally enacted by the 94th Congress as a set of 
consistent rules to help States provide equal access to a free 
appropriate public education to children with disabilities. But over 
the years, that initial need to provide consistent guidelines to the 
States has sometimes been misinterpreted as a license to write 
burdensome compliance requirements.
  The IDEA Amendments of 1997 address these problems. These amendments 
give educators the flexibility and the tools they need to achieve 
results and ease the paperwork burden that has kept teachers from 
spending the maximum time teaching.
  By shifting the emphasis of IDEA to helping schools help children 
with disabilities achieve educational results,

[[Page S747]]

we are able to reduce many of the most burdensome administrative 
requirements currently imposed on States and local school districts.
  The IDEA Amendments of 1997 streamline planning and implementation 
requirements for local school districts and States. In assessment and 
classification, these amendments would allow schools to shift emphasis 
from generating data dictated by bureaucratic needs to gathering 
relevant information that is needed to teach a child.
  These amendments also give schools and school boards more control 
over how they use special purpose funds to provide training, research 
and information dissemination. We want to encourage every school in 
America to create programs that best serve the needs of all of their 
students, with and without disabilities.
  The IDEA Amendments of 1997 clarify that the general education 
curriculum and standards associated with that curriculum should be used 
to teach children with disabilities and to assess their educational 
progress.
  Educators at both the local and State levels will use indicators of 
student progress that allow them to track the progress of children with 
disabilities in meaningful ways along with the progress of other 
children.
  In an effort to reduce confrontation and costly litigation, the IDEA 
Amendments of 1997 require States to offer mediation to parents who 
have a dispute over their child's education. The amendments also 
address the serious issue of disciplining children with disabilities 
who break school rules that apply to all children.
  By providing fair and balanced guidelines to help schools discipline 
students with disabilities, the amendments ensure that all children in 
our public schools are given the opportunity to learn in a safe 
environment.
  By preserving the right of children with disabilities to a free 
appropriate public education, by providing school districts with new 
degrees of procedural, fiscal, and administrative flexibility, and by 
promoting the consideration of children with disabilities in actions to 
reform schools and make them accountable for student progress, IDEA 
will remain a viable, useful law that will provide guidance well into 
the next century.
  The introduction of the Individual with Disabilities Education 
Amendments of 1997 today represents my continued commitment to the 
reauthorization of IDEA. I am pleased that the substantial work done on 
the reauthorization of IDEA during the last Congress will serve as a 
foundation for our efforts during this Congress. I recognize that there 
is still much debate to come, and much hard work to be done before we 
successfully strengthen and extend this vital law into the 21st 
century. I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle and the disability and education communities during 
the upcoming reauthorization effort.
  Together we have the opportunity to bring common sense improvements 
to IDEA, improving the law and opportunities for children with 
disabilities.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for 
all the work he has done. He deserves, and should get, accolades and 
helpful attention to this bill, because we do need help in making sure 
it gets into law. But the work he did last year has been incredibly 
helpful. It moves us a long way toward that goal.
                                 ______