By Fritz Edelstein
December 13, 2004

The United States Conference of Mayors, along with the National Governors' Association, National Association of Counties, National Conference of State Legislatures, National League of Cities and the International City/County Management Association, was involved in some final decisions made by the Congressional Conference Committee on reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). For more than a year, a policy battle had been taking place between the House and the Senate as well as numerous interest groups over what final changes would be made in the Act.

These intergovernmental groups co'signed a letter to the conference committee sharing major concerns of state and locally elected officials. The letter addressed the issue areas of monitoring and enforcement, highly qualified teachers, risk pools, maintenance of effort, protection and advocacy centers, funding, state activities and administration, and referral for children under the age of three.

The conference committee report on IDEA concurred with most of the recommendations suggested in the letter and included them in provisions in the final legislation. These included:

• Aligning IDEA monitoring with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) including the Secretary of Education must take action to help any state that does not meet the defined targets in the state plan;
• Allows states to create a pathway to demonstrate subject matter competency for multi'subject special education teachers and clarifies the requirements for a high qualified special education teacher;
• Retains the state authority to create risk pools and incentives are to be provided to those states that would like to create risk pools voluntarily. It will not have a one'size fits all policy;
• Authorizes a 15-state demonstration project on reducing paperwork;
• Provides expanded flexibility for local education agencies and states to retain a larger percentage of the federal investment in special education as one measures for maintenance of effort;
• Does not require states to fund protection an advocacy centers that currently sue the state on behalf of special education students, but the bill does provide opportunities for resolution and mediation sessions;
• Allows states to retain their own systems for screening and referrals of children to the statewide system rather than a separate one;
• Establishes a path to reach full funding of the federal share of IDEA by 2011; and
• Adjusts caps on state activities and administrative set aside funding with annual adjustments for inflation which had not been changed since 1997.

Most of the key policies affecting state and local governing entities were settled in a favorable way.