ASHA President Battle Testifies at Boston IDEA Public Meeting

ASHA President, Dolores Battle, testified at the February 7th IDEA Hearing hosted by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in Boston, MA. Dr. Battle focused on ASHA's concerns about the personnel qualification changes in IDEA 2004 and the potential changes in qualification standards and hiring practices that may result from these changes. She stated that it is critical for state education agencies to establish appropriate qualifications for related service providers, as that is the practice in the best interest of children with disabilities for meeting educational goals, especially those related to the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria in compliance with No Child Left Behind. President Battle also submitted written comments on this and other issues of concern to ASHA.

The meeting in Boston attracted a wide array of participants, including:
related services providers, representatives of state departments of education, parents, association/coalition representatives, regular education teachers, and attorneys. Issues addressed included: personnel qualifications, related services, 3-year IEP, IEP excusal, paperwork, short-term objectives, transition, funding, discipline, due process, overrepresentation, and funding. The purpose of the public meetings are to seek input and suggestions for developing regulations based on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 that reauthorized IDEA 2004. ED anticipates the release of proposed rules on IDEA by the end of March/early April 2005, at which time there will be another series of regional meetings on its notice of proposed rulemaking.

ASHA urges all school-based speech-language pathologists and audiologists to submit comments to ED in response to its December 29, 2004 Federal Register notice on IDEA 2004. Comments may be sent via mail or e-mail and need to be received on or before February 28, 2005 to be assured consideration.

You can do this in less than 5 minutes through ASHA's Take Action Web site at https://takeaction.asha.org. We have developed a brief model letter on five key issues concerning IDEA 2004 that you can send as is, modify to your own style, or add your own personal stories. For further information, please contact Catherine D. Clarke, ASHA's Director of Education and Regulatory Advocacy, via e-mail at cclarke@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4159.