COPAA advocates with policy makers to protect the educational and civil rights of children with disabilities. COPAA’s efforts include:

December 19, 2011 – COPAA sends a letter of support to Senator Harkin for S. 2020, Keeping All Students Safe Act. This bill would promote the development of effective intervention and prevention practices that do not impose restraints and seclusion; protect all students from physical or mental abuse, aversive behavioral interventions that compromise health and safety, and any restraint imposed for purposes of coercion, discipline or convenience, or as a substitute for appropriate educational or positive behavioral interventions and supports. Importantly the bill also works to ensure the safety of all students and school personnel, promote positive school culture and climate, prohibit retaliation, ban seclusion, and limit the use of restraint to situations posing an imminent danger of serious bodily injury.  All existing rights under Federal and State Laws are preserved.

December 12, 2011 – COPAA submitted comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on 34 C.F.R. Part 300 governing the Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities, published in the Federal Register Vol. 76, No. 188, on September 28, 2011 at 76 Fed. Reg. 60310.  We are very concerned that the proposed rule serves to weaken and reduce the rights of parents and their children. It is critical to assure that parents retain control of consent to the services provided to the child both inside and outside of school using their insurance.  Notice is not sufficient.

December, 2011 - COPAA joined other advocates in CCD to send a letter to Secretary Duncan regarding the ESEA waivers.  While we understand the Department’s rationale for offering to provide State educational agencies (SEA) with flexibility regarding several of the current provisions in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), we hope that the significant advances regarding the accountability of the academic performance of our nation’s 5.8 million school-age students with disabilities made under No Child Left Behind will not be diminished in the process. To that end, we respectfully request that the Department ensures that ESEA Flexibility Requests provide meaningful information about how students with disabilities will be included in new State-developed plans as the process moves forward.

December, 2011 -  COPAA continues to advocate vigorously for more meaningful accountability.  Most recently in a summer OSEP Policy Forum and then in the letter to Dr. Musgrove in December, 2011 regarding Pending Collection No. 4736: IDEA State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) Performance Indicators (attached) COPAA expressed concern, not with the indicators themselves, but with the manner in which OSEP uses the annual performance results (APR). By not putting any weight on the performance indicators in its determinations regarding compliance, and by advising state education agencies not to do so when monitoring local education agencies, OSEP undercuts the inherent value of the indicators. The lack of clarity and uniformity of the requirements applied in measurement of the indicators also undercuts their value.

October, 2011 – COPAA joins other advocates in CCD to oppose S. 1571 as introduced by Senator Isakson in September, and a similar amendment introduced during Senate Committee consideration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act of 2011 on October 18th.  The amendment would allow schools to discriminate against student with disabilities by significantly lowering the academic expectations for students with disabilities.

October, 2011 – COPAA joins other advocates in an unprecedented show of unity by submitting a letter in advance of the Senate mark-up of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2011. The bipartisan coalition of civil rights groups, business associations, statewide education officials, and education advocates declined to support the ESEA Act of 2011 proposed by HELP Committee Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi due in large part to the absence of accountability measures that narrow the achievement gaps for low-income students, students of color, English language learners, and students with disabilities.

October 18, 2011 - COPAA joins other advocates in a meeting with the US Department of Education regarding the U.S. Department of Education introduction of an ESEA Flexibility Program on September 23, 2011, which allows States to waive certain key accountability and funding allocation requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA-formerly referred to as NCLB, the No Child Left Behind Act). In exchange for these waivers, States must provide certain assurances that are supposed to improve academic achievement for all students. It is expected that most States will submit a Flexibility Request. The Advocacy Institute has published Tips for Protecting Students with Disabilities regarding ESEA Flexibility.

October 2011 -  COPAA joins other advocates in support of  S. 1716, ASSURING SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS THROUGH EFFECTIVE TEACHING ACT OF 2011.  COPAA remains deeply concerned with promoting educational quality and equity, particularly for students who have traditionally been least well served by our educational system, and therefore we are deeply committed to the development of well-prepared and effective teachers for all communities, and to the equitable distribution of these teachers to all students.  S. 1716 embodies these goals.

October 2011 -  COPAA joins other advocates in support of H.R. 2902, the Equal Access to Quality Education Act of 2011. This act stemmed directly from the work of the Highly Qualified Teachers coalition, of which COPAA is a participating member.   If passed this Act  would be an important step towards assuring that all educators have the knowledge base and professional skills to meet the needs of diverse learners, including students with disabilities.

September 2011 – COPAA supports S. 1403 IDEA Full Funding Act. We applaud Senator Harkin’s leadership on this important legislation that will enable students, teachers, specialized support personnel, local communities and states to fulfill the promise of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA. Yet, despite this great progress, much more remains to fulfill the IDEA’s full promise.  Fully funding will greatly assist in closing this gap.  COPAA does caution that fully funding the IDEA without addressing Maintenance of Effort (MOE) will allow school districts to reduce their special education budgets and shift the dollars to the general fund.   Therefore  we urge members of Congress to push the Department of Education to amend, correct and revise ED Non‐regulatory guidance regarding state monitoring and enforcement to be consistent with the statute that mandates State review of both performance and compliance targets in the State’s performance plan in determining whether local educational agencies shall be prohibited from reducing local maintenance of effort.

September 2011 - COPAA send a letter to the DOE in support of the position of The Center for Law and Education (CLE) articulated in its August 17^th request for the Office of Special Education Program (OSEP) to reconsider and rescind its “informal guidance” concerning the local maintenance of effort (MOE) requirement under § 613 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA).  COPAA also signed onto the letter submitted by CCD on this subject.

May 2011 - COPAA releases brief,“Responding to a Blueprint for Reform through the Lens of Students with Disabilities,” along with a limited set of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (“ESEA”) policy recommendations pertaining to students with disabilities drawn upon the analysis in the brief.  The brief, authored  by the Center for Law and Education under a contract with COPAA, is in specific response to the Obama Administration’s plan for the reauthorization of the ESEA as represented in “A Blueprint for Reform” released by the U.S. Department of Education (“ED”) in March, 2010. 

March 2011 -  COPAA joins 29 national organizations in support of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Principles for Reauthorization of ESEA.  

January 2011: COPAA joined advocates nationwide to express deep concern in a letter to President Obama about a provision inserted in H.R. 3082, the Continuing Resolution for government funding passed in December, which undermined the federal definition of a “highly qualified teacher” in the No Child Left Behind Act by allowing states to label teachers as “highly qualified” when they are still in training – and, in many cases, just beginning training – in alternative route programs. This provision was inserted inserted in the law without notice to concerned public stakeholders and without public debate.