COPAA’s Major Legislative Priorities

COPAA's Major Legislative Priorities

All students are general education students first.
Students with disabilities have benefited greatly from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) because the law requires their academic achievement to be measured and reported. As a result, more students with disabilities have been afforded the opportunity to learn and master grade level academic content. Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act must ensure that all students can learn and thrive in school and be career and college ready. It is critically important that COPAA Members and colleagues tell Congress the Individualized Education Program (IEP) is not an appropriate accountability tool to measure a student’s academic progress. The IEP is an agreement between parents and schools that details the specific skills, services and supports a child needs to make progress in the general education curriculum. Moreover, the final regulations to IDEA reaffirm that the IEP is not appropriate for school accountability purposes. ESEA provides academic accountability for students with disabilities, like it does for every other student. Therefore, all statewide assessments used for ESEA accountability purposes, including alternate assessments, must continue to measure only academic achievement, not progress on functional goals.
Reinstate Prevailing Parents’ Right To Expert Witness Fees.
Few parents can afford the thousands of dollars needed for expert witnesses at hearings. Congress should override Arlington C.S.D. v. Murphy (2006) and restore the original intent of the Handicapped Children’s Protection Act of 1986. COPAA strongly urges support for S. 613 and H.R 1208, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act, which would override Murphy.
Make the Burden of Proof Fair and Equitable.
Lacking the resources and expertise available to school districts, parents are at a distinct disadvantage in due process hearings. Congress should override Schaffer v. Weast (2005) and place the burden of proof on school districts as the majority of Courts of Appeals had done prior to 2005.
Provide A Good Education to All Children with Disabilities.
Congress should ensure the IDEA is properly interpreted to require that children with disabilities receive educations that provide meaningful benefit. America’s 7.1 million children with disabilities deserve a good education that will enable them to achieve maximum independence as adults.
Restore Attorneys Fees When Parents Settle.
Congress should override Buckhannon v. West Virginia (2000) and restore the rights of parents and other civil rights plaintiffs to recover attorneys fees if they settle but their hearing request was the catalyst for the defendant to provide a remedy. Buckhannon has made it much harder for parents without substantial financial resources to pursue their children’s educational rights.
Allow Parents to Properly Pursue Ongoing Violations.
When a child has been denied a free appropriate public education for many years and the violation is ongoing, Congress should make clear that parents can pursue a remedy to make their child whole for all of the years. Some children may languish for years with inappropriate educations, falling further and further behind.
Protect the Right to Observe in the Classroom.
Parents of children with disabilities and their experts often need to observe the classroom to monitor provision of FAPE to their children or to otherwise enforce their children’s rights. For many years they were welcome in the classroom, but today, many school districts try to prevent or sharply limit their right to observe.
Make IDEA’s Procedural Protections Effective.
Increasingly, parents of children with disabilities confront an unlevel playing field that does little to assure a fair hearing process. Resolution sessions fail to achieve their objective and are misused as fishing expeditions; school districts refuse to respond to due process complaints; and motions for insufficiency are used as obstacles to a hearing.
Stop Abuse of Children in Schools.
Congress should pass legislation to end the use of restraints, seclusion, and other aversive interventions upon children with disabilities in our nation’s schools. Abuse is a violation of fundamental human rights. Every child has a right to positive behavioral interventions.
Disciplinary Rights.
COPAA has received reports that children with disabilities are being ejected into alternative schools, denied access to an education with their peers and appropriate educational services. Behavioral Intervention Plans are often ineffective; Functional Behavioral Assessments, poorly conducted. Increasingly, school districts are sending children to face criminal charges for relatively minor incidents.

Subscribe

COPAA's Major Legislative Priorities