[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 49 (Monday, December 6, 2004)]
[Pages 2897-2898]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the Individuals with Disabilities Education 
Improvement Act of 2004

December 3, 2004

    Thanks for coming. Good morning. I'm proud to be standing up here 
with friends from both sides of the political aisle who worked together 
to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It's a 
really good piece of legislation. It took a lot of hard work, and it 
shows what is possible in our Nation's Capital.
    I want to thank Mike Castle for being the sponsor of the bill. I 
appreciate your hard work, Mike. I also appreciate being here with 
Senator Ted Kennedy, who has been a long-time advocate for the IDEA 
legislation. I appreciate you bringing your sister. Welcome. I want to 
thank Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming and Senator Pat Roberts from 
Kansas, Senator Sessions from Alabama, Senator Lamar Alexander from 
Tennessee, and Congressman Ric Keller for being here as well. Thanks for 
your good work and your stalwart support.
    I appreciate Gene Hickok. Dr. Hickok here is the Deputy Secretary of 
the U.S. Department of Education. I want to thank Doug Huntt, who is the 
commissioner of the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission, for 
agreeing to serve on the President's Commission on Excellence in Special 
Education. I want to thank you for your work on that, Dr. Huntt.
    I appreciate Kyle Stevenson being up here today. Kyle, thank you for 
coming. I first got to meet Kyle at the--[laughter]--White House tee-
ball game. He's a pretty good player. Thanks for coming. Stephanie, I 
appreciate you being here. It's good to see you again. I want to thank 
Isabelle June Bailey for being here. Isabelle June, thank you for being 
here. We're so proud you're here. Thank you for joining us. [Laughter] 
She's up here with her mom, Carolyn, and her dad and two brothers, Alex 
and Ben, are with us today as well. Thank you all for coming.
    America's schools educate over 6 million children with disabilities. 
In the past, those students were too often just shuffled through the 
system with little expectation that they could make significant progress 
or succeed

[[Page 2898]]

like their fellow classmates. Children with disabilities deserve high 
hopes, high expectations, and extra help.
    In the bill I sign today, we're raising expectations for the 
students. We're giving schools and parents the tools they need to meet 
them. We're applying the reforms of the No Child Left Behind Act to the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act so schools are 
accountable for teaching every single child. All our students deserve 
excellent teachers, so this law ensures that students with disabilities 
will have special education teachers with the skills and training to 
teach special education and their subject area.
    Some students with disabilities will need intensive, individualized 
help. So this law, for the first time, will support tutoring programs to 
help children in schools that need improvement. When schools are so busy 
trying to deal with unnecessary and costly lawsuits, they have less time 
to spend with students. So we're creating opportunities for parents and 
teachers to resolve problems early. We're making the system less 
litigious so it can focus on the children and their parents.
    The people who care most about the students are, of course, the 
teachers and especially the parents, who know their needs and know their 
names. So we're giving more flexibility and control over the students' 
education to parents and teachers and principals. We'll make sure that 
parents and schools can change a student's educational program to better 
meet their needs, without having to attend unnecessary meetings or 
complete unnecessary paperwork. We trust the local folks to meet high 
standards for all our kids, and this bill gives them the freedom and 
flexibility to meet our goals.
    All students in America can learn. That's what all of us up here 
believe. All of us understand we have an obligation to make sure no 
child is left behind in America. So I'm honored to sign the Individuals 
with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and once again 
thank the Members for being here.

Note: The President spoke at 10:20 a.m. in Room 350 of the Dwight D. 
Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to 
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder, Special Olympics. At the time of 
publication, H.R. 1350, approved December 3, had not been received by 
the Office of the Federal Register for assignment of a Public Law 
number.