Off Topic/ESEA Amendments-Alert!

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Please call this was an alert from FEAT

Action Alert: No Discipline Amendments

No Denial Of Education - Not Now, Not Ever!

Immediate Action Needed

Eliminate Harmful Discipline And Other Amendments From

S.1/H.R.1.

These Amendments Deny Children With Disabilities Their Right To A

Full, Free

Appropriate Public Education. " No Discipline Amendments No Denial Of

Education - Not Now , Not Ever!! "

The time has come to focus our attention on defeating the

discipline

and other harmful amendments to the Elementary and Secondary

Education Act

(ESEA) bill that will deny education to children and youth with

disabilities. Although many have started making calls, writing and

faxing

letters to their representatives, there is concern that our calls and

letters are not having a strong enough impact. Therefore, we are

asking you

to join with us as well as other organizations across the country to

spread

the word. We can increase our impact and guarantee that our voices

of

opposition are heard if all of us - parents, community members,

educators,

advocates and students - contact our Senators and Representatives.

Please, help us by taking the following actions:

1. Ask your family members, friends, community members,

educators and

advocates in your state to call their U.S. Senators and

Representatives.

Since Congress is in recess, they should call the local offices of

the

elected officials. They may also choose to call their offices in

Washington,

D.C. [Capitol switchboard: ] The important thing is to

generate

as many calls as possible. The message should be: No Discipline

Amendments

To Esea. No Denial Of Education - Not Now, Not Ever!

2. It is critical that those of us whose Senator or

Representative is

on the conference committee generate as many calls as possible to

his/her

office. The telephone numbers of the conferees can be found at the

end of

this alert.

3. Tell the President what you think by calling Sandy Kress,

President Bush's education advisor. Ask him to urge President Bush

to

remove from the ESEA bill the discipline and other harmful amendments

that

deny education to students with disabilities. Mr. Kress's number at

the

White House is .

4. Call the Washington DC offices of Senator Kennedy (202)224-

4543

and Representative Boehner , the chair persons of the

conference committee, and leave the message: No Discipline Amendments

To

Esea. No Denial Of Education. Not Now Not Ever!

Background.

As you know, two amendments concerning discipline of students

with

disabilities have passed the Senate and House, and will soon be taken

up by

the Conference Committee as it tries to resolve differences between

the two

versions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act being

reauthorized.

Both amendments eliminate existing rights of children with

disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,

and

will, if enacted, allow school personnel to remove more children with

disabilities from school AND deny them ALL education.

Even though we are receiving a lot of support from educators,

community persons, parents, students and advocacy groups who are

urging the

Congress to eliminate Senator Session's [R.AL] Amendment no.604 to

the IDEA

and Representative Norwood's [R. GA] H. Amdt. no.55 to the ESEA, we

cannot

take anything for granted.

If either of these discipline amendments is enacted into law,

children

and youth with disabilities will lose their right to receive a free

appropriate public education [FAPE]. The amendments make a mockery

of the

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, whose most basic core

principle, zero reject - no cessation of services, has for more than

25

years guaranteed that no child with a disability shall be denied a

free

appropriate public education.

Another provision of Senator Sessions' amendment (no. 604),

independent of the disciplinary exclusion, further undermines current

law,

including the right to a free appropriate public education in the

least

restrictive environment. It allows students to be transferred

without

informed consent to a private, segregated school (if agreed to by the

parents and school). Such a transfer will relieve the local public

school

district from any further responsibility, including financial

responsibility

for the costs of appropriate special education and related services

as may

be required for that student.

The private segregated school will receive from the public

school

district only the limited per pupil funding allocated under IDEA, and

can

charge families for all other costs associated with educating the

child, who

will not be entitled to procedural safeguards under IDEA.

The members of the conference committee from the House and

Senate have

already begun to meet to work out their differences on the larger

ESEA.

Please contact your Senators and Congress persons and tell them to

eliminate

the Sessions/Norwood discipline plus amendments because they are

hurtful to

children with disabilities.

Tell your Senators and Representatives that it is time to stop

scapegoating children with disabilities. Tell them that as a parent

of a

child with a disability, or as an educator, community member, student

or

advocate, you are tired of fighting amendments that will deny

children a

free appropriate public education. Ask them to improve teaching and

learning for all our children, including those for whom behavior may

need to

be addressed as an educational matter. EDUCATE all our kids, don't

exclude

them.

If you need additional information, you can visit any number

of

websites, including IDEA Watch at www.adawatch.org; the Center for

Law and

Education at www.cleweb.org; PACER at www.pacer.org; the Council for

Exceptional Children at www.cec.sped.org ; NPND at www.npnd.org; TASH

at

www.tash.org

Additional points

If you are able to meet with your U.S. Senator or

Representative, or

if you are able to engage in a longer discussion with a member of his

or her

staff, you may wish to make the following points:

! The Sessions and Norwood amendments should be removed

from the

ESEA bill. They eliminate the most basic principles underlying IDEA,

namely

" zero reject " and " no cessation " of a free and appropriate education

(FAPE),

and the right to FAPE in the least restrictive environment (LRE).

The

Norwood Amendment (H. Amdt. no. 55) denies ALL educational services

to

students with disabilities for certain types of behavior, even if the

behavior is related to their disability. The Sessions Amendment (S.

Amdt.

no. 604) primarily has the effect of denying educational services to

students with disabilities if the behavior for which they are being

disciplined is not related to their disability. It also contains an

insidious provision unrelated to the discipline provision that

authorizes

the transfer of students with the agreement [NOTE, not informed

consent] of

parents to segregated private schools where they will not be entitled

to

FAPE, LRE or procedural safeguards.

! The evidence does not support the need for these

discipline

amendments; the GAO report on discipline under IDEA found that the

discipline provisions agreed to by the bipartisan Congress in 1997

are being

fairly and effectively implemented.

! Expelling children does not lead to safer schools or

communities. Rather, positive behavior systems have been shown to

assist

school districts and students effectively address behavior as an

educational

matter.

! School authorities already have the authority to remove

unilaterally children with disabilities who may be harmful to self or

others. It is short-sighted to deny any child education - and, it is

particularly irrational to deny appropriate public education to a

child with

a disability whose chances are already greater of dropping out of

school,

becoming involved in the juvenile justice system, and being

unemployed.

The members of the conference committee from the House and

Senate have

already begun to meet to work out their differences on the larger

ESEA.

For list of Conferees to contact, go to:

http://www.adawatch.org/ideawatch.asp#contact

Jeneane, Houston

Nick-5-NT

-3-PDD-nos

Beth 2-NT