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President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education Holds First Meeting,

Sets Meeting Schedule

FOR RELEASE:

January 15, 2002

Contact: Kathleen Mynster

Jim Bradshaw

(202)-401-1576

The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education was sworn in today

and set out its agenda for the next four months.

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige delivered welcoming remarks and swore in

the 19-member commission.

" He is committed to the bold proposition that every child can learn, " Paige told

the commission. " This doesn't mean that, after you siphon off the children who

have disabilities; or the children who were never properly taught how to read;

or the children who never learned English; or the children who disrupted their

classrooms, most of the rest of them can learn.

" It means that all of our kids, even the ones our system calls 'hard to teach'

can learn. This means that even students with disabilities can learn to high

standards. "

Paige also called on the commission to discover what works to improve the

performance of students with disabilities.

" Your task as a commission is to discover what works to improve the performance

of students with disabilities receiving special education, " he said. " Talk to

other experts. Examine research. Study preventive reading programs, and tell us

how Washington can help state and local communities provide excellent special

education services. "

President Bush created the commission in October to collect information and

study issues related to federal, state and local special education programs with

the goal of recommending policies for improving the educational performance of

students with disabilities. The purpose of the meetings is to hear from experts

and members of the public who will provide the commission with information and

guidance.

The commission is charged with producing a final report to the president by this

summer that contains findings and recommendations in the following nine areas:

Cost-effectiveness: The effectiveness and cost of special education and the

appropriate role of the federal government in special education programming and

funding, including an analysis of the factors that have contributed to the

growth in costs of special education since the enactment of the Education for

All Handicapped Children Act (a predecessor of IDEA);

Improving Results: How federal resources can best be used to improve educational

results for students with disabilities;

Research: A special education research agenda;

Early Intervention: The impact of providing appropriate early intervention in

reading instruction on the referral and identification of children for special

education;

Funding Formulae: The effect of special education funding on decisions to serve,

place, or refer children for special education services and possible alternative

funding formulae that might distribute funds to achieve better results and

eliminate any current incentives that undermine the goals of ensuring

high-quality education for children with disabilities;

Teacher Quality and Student Accountability: How the federal government can help

states and local education agencies provide a high-quality education to students

with disabilities, including the recruitment and retention of qualified

personnel and the inclusion of children with disabilities in performance and

accountability systems;

Regulations and Red Tape: The impact of federal and state statutory, regulatory

and administrative requirements on the cost and effectiveness of special

education services, and how these requirements support or hinder the educational

achievement of students with disabilities;

What Models Work in the States: How differences in local education agency size,

location, demographics and wealth, and in-state law and practice affect which

children are referred to special education and the cost of special education;

and

Federal v. Local Funding: A review of the experiences of state and local

governments in financing special education, and an analysis of whether changes

to the federal " supplement not supplant " and " maintenance of effort "

requirements are appropriate.

Commission members approved the following meeting schedule: Feb. 25-27, Houston,

Texas; March 6, Denver, Colo.; March 13, Des Moines, Iowa; March 20, San Diego,

Calif.; March 21, Los Angeles, Calif.; April 9-10, Miami, Fla.; April 16, New

York City, N.Y.; April 18, Nashville, Tenn.; and May 30-31, Washington, D.C.

Meeting times and locations will be available at a later date, and additional

meetings may be added by the commission, if necessary.

The commission members are: Terry Branstad of Iowa, chairman; Adela

Acosta, land; Steve Bartlett, Texas; Berdine, Kentucky; a

Butterfield, Pennsylvania; Jay G. Chambers, California; W. Alan Coulter,

Louisiana; Floyd Flake, New York; Albert Fleming, Michigan; Jack M.

Fletcher, Texas; H. Gill, Washington; W. Gordon, California;

Grasmick, land; Steve Hammerman, New York; Hassel, North Carolina;

Carl Huntt, Ohio; J. Rivas, Texas; Cheryl Rei Takemoto,

Virginia; and , Illinois.

For more information, visit the commission's Web site at

http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation/index.html.