Special Education Law Blog

Administration Proposals For NCLB Would Leave Many More Children Behind

The U.S. Department of Education has proposed revisions to NCLB which would permit as many as 30% of all children with special needs to meet standards at a substandard level.  In effect this proposal permanently leaves behind many students with special needs especially those with learning disabilities. {This news story came to my attention from a reader, Karen Purcell]

NCLB Up for Reauthorization and Revision

Now that the Democrats have taken over the Congress, the debate over the reauthorization of NCLB has begun in earnest according to a recent New York Times article. Among the issues the Democrats are raising are as follows:

Significant Development in NCLB Rating Scales

The blog the Quick and the Ed has published on an important development in how schools in Tennessee and North Carolina are  to rate progress under NCLB. This announcement from Education Secretary Spelling may develop over time into the norm for other states.

High Stakes Testing Awry Again

In the last two days there have been two major stories of problems with high stakes testing.

NCLB As A Means of Military Recruitment

NCLB contains language pertaining to military recruitment.  Most parents regard NCLB as being about high stakes testing, annual yearly progress, reading standards, and teacher qualifications.  However, it is also about the military acquiring "directory" information on students attending public school for purposes of military recruitment.  Although the Department of Defense and Department of Education characterize the desire to obtain this information as an opportunity "for informing young people of  scholarship opportunities."[ Download Rumsfeld_Paige_on_military_recruiters_Ltr.pdf ] Obviously these claims are disingenuous, as the real purpose is simply for recruitment of more young people to enter the military.

Chief of the National Education Association Speaks Out Against NCLB

Politically the National Education Association has never been  a friend of special education students. The head of a the NEA, Reginald Weaver, recently spoke out in very strident terms against NCLB and President Bush's cuts to education funding to pay for the Iraq war.   See link for the story.

While I am not in favor of cutting spending for education, leaders on behalf of children with special needs have noted that NCLB actually has been helpful.

No Child Left Behind May Protect Rights of Students with Disabilities

On October 11, 2005, the Washington Post ran an article suggesting that the federal No Child Left Behind Law (NCLB) has helped to institutionalize a process of protections for students with disabilities, whether or not their parents or guardians were in a position to advocate for them through IDEA.

Ricki Sabia, Associate Director for the National Down Syndrome Society Public Policy Center, shared her perspective on the law:

"At national conferences I have seen that some teachers and administrators are beginning to see that segregating students with disabilities in classes without access to the general curriculum or highly qualified--content trained--teachers is partly to blame for the achievement gap," she said.  Unfortunately other teachers and administrators are spending more time fighting NCLB than they are spending on narrowing this gap."

"The biggest impact of NCLB may be a revolution in the way we talk about education for students with disabilities," she said.  "The standard has always been an appropriate education which provides some minimal benefit or progress on IEP goals.  We only heard 'world class' or 'state of the art' applied to general education.  With NCLB, school systems will have to start applying those terms to students with disabilities if they are not to be left behind."

Evanston/Skokie School District #65 Settles First Amendment Case Over No Child Left Behind

Below is a summary of an article reported in the September 21, 2005 edition of Education Week:

Two years ago, a grade school teacher at Evanston's King Lab School, Vickie Proctor,  was transferred from her teaching post after expressing her views on No Child Left Behind (NCLB).   Ms. Proctor stated she was protesting the requirements of NCLB when she hung a skeleton dressed in a Michael Jordan jersey in the teachers' lounge.  She hung a sign on the skeleton that said NCLB had killed it.  She hung another sign that said "I am a Texas scholar, this is an oxy-Moron."

Other teachers were upset, feeling that the skeleton resembled a lynching.

She filed suit in Federal Court in Chicago claiming her First Amendment rights had been violated.  The case was settled for $250,000 and a letter acknowledging Ms. Proctor's years of service.