URGENT!! CEC Policy Update, March 8, 2001

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Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 11:18 AM

Subject: CEC Policy Update, March 8, 2001

Members of the US Senate and House of Representatives Consider Bills to

Fully Fund IDEA

This week Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) joined with Senators Jim Jeffords

(R-VT) and Kennedy (D-MA) in introducing legislation (S. 466)

that

would guarantee full funding for IDEA within six years.  A bipartisan

group

of seven Republican and Democratic Senators joined their colleagues and

endorsed this landmark legislation during a national press event on

Capitol

Hill on Tuesday, March 6, 2001.

The full funding bill, called the " Helping Children Succeed by Fully

Funding

the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), " changes the

funding

stream under IDEA from discretionary to mandatory, guaranteeing that

federal

special education funds would increase by $2.5 billion each year

beginning

in Fiscal Year 2002 until Fiscal Year 2007, when federal funding would

reach

40%.  Rep. Bass (R-NH) recently introduced similar legislation

in

the US House of Representatives, along with 17 cosponsors (see list of

cosponsors below).

CEC is backing the proposed legislation and has joined a coalition of

nine

national education organizations to form the IDEA Funding Coalition,

with a

goal of fully funding the Part B Grants to States Program within 6

years.

Members of the coalition include the American Association of School

Administrators, the National Education Association, the American

Federation

of Teachers, the National School Boards Association, the National

Parent-Teacher Association, the Council of the Great City Schools, the

National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the American

Speech-Language-Hearing Association, along with CEC.

It is important to note, however, that while both bills dramatically

increase funds for special education programs and services under Part B

of

IDEA, they fail to secure increased funding for personnel preparation,

research, and other national activities that will improve educational

services for children with disabilities. The proposed legislation also

fails

to provide additional funding for pre-school and early intervention

programs

for infants and toddlers. CEC will continue to work to obtain increased

funding for these vital programs.

Actions You Can Take

Urge Your Members of Congress to Cosponsor S. 466 or H.R. 737

If your member of Congress is not an original sponsor or cosponsor of S.

466

or H.R. 737, you are strongly encouraged to contact your Senators and

Representative and urge them to cosponsor the Senate and House bills, S.

466

and H.R. 737, respectively (see list of sponsors below).  Current lists

of

cosponsors are provided below, but this list will hopefully grow as more

members of Congress join the full funding effort.  You can get

up-to-date

information on the bills and find out if your member of Congress is a

cosponsor by visiting CEC's legislative action website at

http://capwiz.com/cek/homehttp://capwiz.com/cek/home.

It is important that members of Congress support S. 466 and H.R. 737 *

rather than other full funding bills recently introduced * because these

bills are the only bills currently under consideration in Congress that

shift IDEA funding from discretionary to mandatory and, thus, guarantee

full

funding of IDEA within a five or six year timeframe.

You can send your members of Congress a personalized e-mail through

CEC's

Legislative Action Center and ask them to cosponsor either S. 466 or

H.R.

737.  Simply go to http://capwiz.com/cek/officials/http://capwiz.com/cek/officials/ and

search for your

member of Congress by entering your zip code.  You'll then be able to

send a

letter urging him or her to support S. 466 (Senators only) or H.R. 737

(Representative only).

You are also strongly encouraged to request a meeting with your member

of

Congress to discuss IDEA full funding when they return to their home

district or state.  Simply go to http://capwiz.com/cek/officials/http://capwiz.com/cek/officials/ and

search

for your member of Congress by entering your zip code.  You will be able

to

access their contact information from there.

Focus Media Attention

In addition, you can get a copy of CEC's February 9 press release

outlining

our full funding campaign from our website at

http://www.cec.sped.org/pp/pr-020901a.htmlhttp://www.cec.sped.org/pp/pr-\

020901a.html, and share it with your local

media outlets. In early February, CEC distributed the press release to

all

major national education media.  You can also share the press release

with

your local television and radio stations, as well as your local

newspapers,

through CEC's Legislative Action Center.  Go to

http://capwiz.com/cek/dbq/media/http://capwiz.com/cek/dbq/media/

and enter in the requested information.

Thank Your Member of Congress for Cosponsoring the Legislation

If your Senator(s) and/or Representative has already cosponsored S. 466

or

H.R. 737, or becomes a cosponsor, you are encouraged to contact them via

e-mail or by phone and thank them on behalf of children with

disabilities,

their families, and the professionals who serve them.  Members of

Congress

need to hear from you that you appreciate their efforts to fully fund

IDEA.

A draft thank you letter is available at

http://capwiz.com/cek/officials/http://capwiz.com/cek/officials/

or

you can develop your own letter of thanks.  Simply input your zip code

and

modify the thank you letter, as appropriate, to let the member of

Congress

know you appreciate his or her support for special education.

Current Cosponsors in the House and Senate

At the time of this writing, the following Senators are original

sponsors or

cosponsors of the Senate bill, S. 466:

Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Jim Jeffords (R-VT) and Kennedy

(D-MA),

(R-ME), Dodd (D-CT), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Patty

Murray (D-WA), Pat (R-KS), Jack (D-RI), and Olympia Snowe

(R-ME).

At the time of this writing, the following members of Congress have

cosponsored Rep. Bass's IDEA full funding bill (H.R. 737):

Rep. Barcia, A.       Rep. Bentsen, Ken       Rep. Bereuter, Doug

Rep. Doyle, F.  Rep. English, Phil      Rep. Goode, Virgil H.,

Jr.

Rep. Holt, Rush D.      Rep. Hooley, Darlene        Rep. Horn,

Rep. Hutchinson, Asa    Rep. ,          Rep. LoBiondo,

A

Rep. Morella, Constance Rep. Osborne, Tom       Rep. Ramstad, Jim

Rep. Saxton, Jim        Rep. Watkins, Wes

You are encouraged to visit CEC's legislative action website at

http://capwiz.com/cek/homehttp://capwiz.com/cek/home to keep

track of the list of new cosponsors

to S.

466 and H.R. 737.  CEC Public Policy Staff will be meeting with members

of

Congress over the next several weeks to rally support for Senator

Hagel's

and Rep. Bass's full funding bills.  However, your direct involvement is

critical!  Congress is unlikely to enact this legislation unless members

of

Congress hear loud and clear from their constituents that mandatory

funding

for IDEA is a top priority.

Just a reminder that the CAN Network meeting is set for June 9-11 in

Washington, DC.  Don't forget to contact your members of Congress and

request a meeting on Monday, June 11, to discuss IDEA full funding!

For further information contact Deborah Ziegler at or

Egnor at .

March 7, 2001