OUR CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND

** WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW **


ACTION ALERT
from the National Down Syndrome Society




NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT IDEA BEGINS
THURSDAY JUNE 3, 2004

On June 3rd parents and advocates from all over the country will be starting
a campaign to prevent the harmful provisions of the House and Senate
reauthorization bills from becoming law. The next step in the legislative
process is
for the bills to go to a conference committee where they will be negotiated into
single piece of legislation. This is an election year, which means Congress
will adjourn earlier than usual. As a result of time constraints, the
conference committee is likely to compromise between these two damaging bills as
opposed to negotiating provisions that would protect the rights of students with
disabilities.




ACTION STEPS STARTING ON JUNE 3, 2004:
Contact the White House, your member of Congress and your Senators. You can
find their contact information under "elected officials" in the advocacy
section of the website: capwiz.com/ndss/dbq/officials/. If you wish to email a
sample parent letter prepared by NDSS, or draft and email your own letter, you
can
use the "Take Action Now!" feature that appears in this alert on the NDSS
website at capwiz.com/ndss/issues/alert/?alertid=5951206.

If possible, take your child to meet with your member of Congress and your
Senators, or their staff.

Reach out to your family members, your friends, your neighbors and your state
and local elected officials and urge them to assist us in protecting IDEA.
Show them how easy it is to send an email from the NDSS website or add their
names to your letter.
Starting on June 3rd we need to keep a loud, clear, continuous message going
out to the White House and Capitol Hill! We need to keep up the campaign
until this Congressional session ends. If IDEA is not reauthorized in 2004, the
process starts over in 2005. We will keep current law until a reauthorization
is accomplished.




THE MESSAGE:

The House and Senate bills are harmful to students with disabilities and will
leave our children behind. There is not time in this session to negotiate
legislation that protects the rights of these students.

The House and Senate bills should not go to conference if the following
problems cannot be fixed:
Both bills eliminate the student's right to "stay put" in the current
placement pending a disciplinary appeal. This makes it easier for schools to
exclude
children with disabilities by sending them to alternative placements for
behavior that may be caused by their disability. Under the House and Senate
bills,
this can happen even if the behavior is unrelated to drugs, weapons or
violence.

Both bills amend the current provisions for the reimbursement of attorney's
fees and add procedures that make it more cumbersome for parents to file due
process complaints.

Both bills undermine accountability and parent involvement (important tenets
of the No Child Left Behind Act and IDEA) by weakening rights in the IEP
process, including the right to have short-term objectives in the IEP.



FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Both the House and Senate bill fail to protect many critical rights in IDEA.
The list above reflects the problems that the two bills have in common.
However, the House bill goes even further than the Senate bill in diminishing
the
rights of students with disabilities, especially under the discipline and due
process provisions of IDEA. For more details, see the NDSS document "Summary of
Key Provisions In the House and Senate IDEA Bills." It can be found at
capwiz.com/ndss/issues/alert/?alertid=5951281.

If you have questions or comments about this alert, contact Ricki Sabia at
rsabia@.... If you or others you know would like to be added to or removed
from the NDSS mailing list, send name(s) and email address to
webmaster@... with the subject "Subscribe to Advocacy Alerts" or
"Unsubscribe from
Advocacy Alerts".




National Down Syndrome Society
666 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
Phone: 800-221-4602; Fax: 212-979-2873
e-mail: info@...; Web site: www.ndss.org


Our mission is to ensure that all people with Down syndrome have the
opportunity to achieve their full potential in community life.

###

Text of the NDSS template letter to Representatives:


Quote:

I am writing on behalf of a child with Down syndrome to inform you that the
House and Senate reauthorization bills for the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) are harmful to students with disabilities and will leave
these children behind!. IDEA should not be reauthorized without providing the
following critical protections that the House and Senate bills have diminished:

1.) Both bills eliminate the student's right to "stay put" in the current
placement pending a disciplinary appeal. This makes it easier for schools to
exclude children with disabilities by sending them to alternative placements for
behavior that may be caused by their disability. Under the House and Senate
bills, removal from the current placement can occur even if the behavior is
unrelated to drugs, weapons or violence.

2.) Both bills add procedural requirements and amend the current provisions
for the reimbursement of attorney's fees, which make it more cumbersome for
parents to file due process complaints.

3.) Both bills undermine accountability and parent involvement (important
tenets of the No Child Left Behind Act and IDEA) by weakening rights in the
Individualized Education Program (IEP) process, including the right to have
short-term objectives in the IEP.

Since this is an election year, I believe there is insufficient time for a
conference committee to negotiate legislation that would protect the rights of
students with disabilities. If these rights cannot be protected, the House and
Senate IDEA bills should not proceed to conference.


Text of the NDSS template letter to Senators:
Quote:



I am writing on behalf of a child with Down syndrome to inform you that the
House and Senate reauthorization bills for the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) are harmful to students with disabilities and will leave
these children behind!. IDEA should not be reauthorized without providing the
following critical protections that the House and Senate bills have diminished:

1.) Both bills eliminate the student's right to "stay put" in the current
placement pending a disciplinary appeal. This makes it easier for schools to
exclude children with disabilities by sending them to alternative placements for
behavior that may be caused by their disability. Under the House and Senate
bills, removal from the current placement can occur even if the behavior is
unrelated to drugs, weapons or violence.

2.) Both bills add procedural requirements and amend the current provisions
for the reimbursement of attorney's fees, which make it more cumbersome for
parents to file due process complaints.

3.) Both bills undermine accountability and parent involvement (important
tenets of the No Child Left Behind Act and IDEA) by weakening rights in the
Individualized Education Program (IEP) process, including the right to have
short-term objectives in the IEP.

Since this is an election year, I believe there is insufficient time for a
conference committee to negotiate legislation that would protect the rights of
students with disabilities. If these rights cannot be protected, the House and
Senate IDEA bills should not proceed to conference.






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Sandy, Illinois (alpy2@...)
Volunteer Co-Webmaster, www.ourchildrenleftbehind.com (IDEA reauthorization)


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