[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 29, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E103-E104]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCTION OF THE IDEA PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 2003

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                            HON. RIC KELLER

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 29, 2003

  Mr. KELLER. I rise today to introduce the ``IDEA Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 2003''. As a Member of the House Education and Workforce 
Committee, I will be working with Chairman Boehner in the coming months 
to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Over 
the past year, I have heard from many teachers, in my home district of 
Orlando, Florida, about their concerns regarding the special education 
law. One issue was particularly troublesome to me because it seemed to 
be something that I felt could be easily solved--the paperwork burden 
for special education teachers. This legislation will work to pinpoint 
and alleviate the excess paperwork, thereby increasing the quality 
instruction time a teacher can spend with their students in the 
classroom while also ensuring that special education students are 
receiving a quality education.
  Last year I toured local schools in my district of Orlando, FL, to 
get a first-hand understanding of the problems that parents, teachers 
and administrators face implementing a successful special education 
program. One teacher took me into an office where he showcased a 
typical day's work of filling out all of the required forms for a 
special education student. I was shocked to learn that teachers spend 
so much of their time complying with process instead of being able to 
teach and assist students in the classroom.
  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was never intended to 
take teachers' time away from the classroom, rather it was intended to 
ensure that special education students were able to receive the same 
classroom instruction as their general education peers. Unfortunately, 
over time the paperwork trail has grown as states and local districts 
try to ensure that they have complied with the federal law. The threat 
of being sued has encouraged an overabundance of paperwork in order to 
document the school's compliance with the law. When did ``process'' 
overshadow the importance of actual quality instruction and results?
  When a principal testifies that their IEP Teams spend an average of 
83.5 hours filling out paperwork in preparation to sit down for an 
Individualized Education Plan, IEP, with a student's parents--something 
makes me wonder about the 83.5 hours taken away from classroom 
instruction time. IEP's are of course an important aspect of IDEA, but 
there can be some commonsense reforms put in place to reduce the 
redundancy of the process.
  The ``IDEA Paperwork Reduction Act of 2003'' will call for a study by 
the Department of Education to be furnished within 6 months of 
authorization to determine where the burden is stemming from, and 
provide suggestions to mitigate the issue. The Department will be 
required to issue a streamlined IEP for school districts to use as a 
model. It will also call for a pilot program for 10 States to enter 
into an agreement with the Department of Education to perform their own 
paperwork reduction programs to see if any reforms can stem from State 
innovation.
  In addition, the legislation would allow local education agencies to 
offer parents the option of choosing a 3-year IEP--this would allow the 
process to occur at natural transition points for the child instead of 
every year. During a voluntary 3-year IEP, should the parent decide at 
any point during the 3 years that their child is not receiving adequate 
services, they can call for an IEP to be commenced within 30 days.
  These commonsense reforms included in the ``IDEA Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 2003''

[[Page E104]]

will ensure that IDEA is results-driven, not process-driven. The 
legislation will improve the academic achievement of special education 
students and empower parents, while also doing away with an overly 
prescriptive and burdensome process for teachers. It will enable 
teachers to save valuable classroom instruction time for exactly that--
classroom instruction. I encourage my colleagues to call my office to 
cosponsor the ``IDEA Paperwork Reduction Act of 2003''.

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