Fw: Update on Work Study Jobs, Grants, and Model Demos for Students with ID

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From: NDSS Policy Center <slee@...>Subject: Update on Work Study Jobs, Grants, and Model Demos for Students with ID" Pearson" <stpearson@...>Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 5:44 PM

Update on Work Study Jobs, Grants, and Model Demos for Students with ID

Update on Work Study Jobs, Grants, and Model Demos for Students with ID

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Implementation of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA)

NDSS led a successful effort to include provisions in the reauthorization of the higher education act that will allow students with intellectual disabilities, for the first time, to be eligible for Work Study Jobs, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, and Pell Grants. Additional appropriations are not needed before students with students with intellectual disabilities will be eligible. However, before students can start applying for financial assistance, a negotiated rulemaking process must take place and final regulations published. NDSS, supported by other national organizations, nominated Lee, NDSS Senior Policy Advisor, to be a negotiator on this team and Madeleine C. Will, NDSS Vice President for Public Policy, to be an alternate negotiator.

New regulations for financial assistance: The Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, Team V, has met for six days, with subcommittee meetings specifically on issues involving students with intellectual disabilities. The committee is wrestling with difficult issues including: substantiating that a student meets the definition of "a student with intellectual disabilities" and the process an institution of higher education (IHE) must go through for a program to gain approval as a "comprehensive transition and postsecondary education program for students with intellectual disabilities". Part of the challenge is to provide protections for students and federal funds, while avoiding an approval and accrediting process that is far too onerous for IHEs to attempt. Issues

involving accreditation are particularly difficult and sensitive. This is compounded by the current lack of model accreditation standards for programs for students with intellectual

disabilities.

Further complicating the issues are the different "worlds" of postsecondary education, higher education, and special education, with different terminology, rules, and bureaucracies. For instance, the term "program" has a very different meaning in postsecondary education than it does in special education. A "program for students with intellectual disabilities" in postsecondary education could consist entirely of individualized supports and services, while "program" has a different connotation in special education. At the request of NDSS, the Negotiating Rulemaking Committee, Team V, agreed to invite a group of experts we recommended to a day-long meeting with the Intellectual Disability Subcommittee. These experts came from across the country on short notice, at their own expense, to

assist the Subcommittee and Department in addressing these complex issues. Currently the Committee is considering draft regulatory language and will meet again in May.

Appropriations for model projects and coordinating center: The reauthorization also authorizes the development and expansion of high-quality, inclusive model comprehensive transition and post-secondary programs and the establishment of a coordinating center for technical assistance, evaluation, and information dissemination. This center will address model accreditation criteria, standards and procedures for such programs, analyze possible funding streams, and develop model memoranda of agreement between institutions of higher education and agencies providing funding for such programs. NDSS collaborated with several other national organizations to organize a grass roots effort to encourage Members of the House of Representatives to sign on to a "Dear

Colleague" letter to the House Appropriations Committee urging them to fund the model demonstration projects and coordinating centers at a level of $15 million for Fiscal Year 2010. See the

letter HEA Disabilities FY 2010 Final Letter

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National Down Syndrome Society

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NDSS National Policy Center

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e-mail: advocacy@...

The mission of the National Down Syndrome Society is to be the national advocate for the value, acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome.

The National Down Syndrome Society envisions a world in which all people with Down syndrome have the opportunity to enhance their quality of life, realize their life aspirations, and become valued members of welcoming communities.

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