IDEA Reauthorization Passes with
Little Immediate Impact on Transportation

WASHINGTON - An 11 th hour passage of the IDEA Reauthorization bill last month by the lame-duck Congress allocated nearly $10.6 billion for the education of 6.7 million special needs students in 2005, with a possibility of full Federal funding of about $26 billion by 2011.

As for transportation, the new IDEA has little direct or immediate relation to special education transportation, said Peggy Burns , staff counsel for the Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Thornton , Colo.

"Unless I see something I'm (currently) 99 percent sure is not there, there's not going to be any solid impact on transportation per se until the regulations are changed," she said.

A House-Senate conference committee hammered out a bipartisan agreement on Nov. 17 which reconciled two disagreed upon versions passed earlier this year in both chambers. The new IDEA ensured that the entire legislative process would not have to begin anew next month when the 109 th Legislative Session convenes.

The House and Senate approved H.R. 1350 two days later. President Bush signed the bill on Dec. 3, with fiscal year 2005 funding signed into effect five days later.

In a limited scope, a new law on due process could affect transporters.

"There are changes to the manifestation determination process and due process, which will indirectly impact transportation when a process is necessary, or if parents go through due process," Burns said.

The reauthorization specifically proposes to cut paperwork by allowing parents and school officials to make adjustments to a student's IEP without the need to hold a full IEP meeting. Teachers would have more time to teach, and it should be easier, legislators said, for parents to involve themselves in their child's IEP without the need to attend numerous meetings. It also limits the amount of frivolous special needs lawsuits by encouraging mediation between parents and schools before a due-process hearing and implementing a two-year statute of limitations on the filing of claims.

"However, it should be noted that this limitation is not designed to have any impact on the ability of a child to receive compensatory damages for the entire period in which he or she has been deprived of services," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "This is important because it is only fair that if a school district repeatedly failed to provide services to a child, they should be required to provide compensatory services to rectify this problem and help the child achieve despite the school's failings."

But Burns added that the number of due process claims involving transportation is small. "I f there (are) 100 due process complaints, one might be transportation. You can only be hurt by what you don't know," she said. "It's going to be one of these big excitements without much impact to transporters. I can't even predict what the (new regulations) will do."

The last IDEA reauthorization was passed in 1997, but new regulations took two years to be finalized.

Meanwhile, the looming 2011 date for full Federal IDEA funding to reach the 40 percent level was more of a renewed commitment then a promise, as a mandate fell short of the requisite 60 votes in the Senate. Congress currently funds about 19 percent. The reauthorization stopped short of guaranteeing funds, as was called for in the first IDEA law of 1975, and appropriations are still due from Congress each year.

"We fought for this on the floor of the Senate," said Harkin. "I continue to believe that mandatory funding is required to give schools the resources they need to ensure that all children get a quality education."