The Department of Education released final regulations last week on the latest reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, incorporating more than 5,500 comments from the public into guidance for states and schools that does not vary significantly from the draft regulations released a year ago, officials say.

The most closely watched issues in the rule-making process have involved teacher qualifications, diagnosis of learning disabilities, and special education students attending private schools.

Both the IDEA and the 4˝-year-old No Child Left Behind Act require states to take a sophisticated approach in improving the achievement of students with disabilities, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said in an Aug. 3 conference call with reporters.

"While we're very proud of the rule, we're even prouder that we at the Department of Education intend to be a full partner with the states as they work on these more sophisticated approaches," Ms. Spellings said.

"We clarified regulations in a lot of important ways and gave further guidance, which the community expects of us," she added…. The rules become official 60 days after appearing in the Register.

The regulations are the guiding document that educators use in interpreting the provisions of the IDEA, which governs the education of about 6.7 million children with disabilities nationwide. The landmark law was first enacted in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. The final regulations were issued almost two years after the expansive law was last reauthorized by Congress, in November 2004.
(For a link to the full story, visit http://www.civilrights.org/issues/disability/details.cfm?id=46135 and for a look at the rules, regulations, and forms see below.)

Regulations
August 2006

As you may know, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was amended by Congress in December 2004. In an amazing feat of timeliness and determination, OSERS staff released a draft set of implementing regulations on June 10, 2005, conducted public meetings to receive comments from stakeholders, and set about revising the draft, with the end result being that, as of August 2006, we have final regulations on this newest iteration of the IDEA. We give you links below to connect with this exciting development in the field of special education. Final Regulations in PDF. Published in the Federal Register on August 14, 2006: http://www.nichcy.org/reauth/IDEA2004regulations.pdf

Text-only version of the regs.
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/finrule/2006-3/081406a.html

Model Forms.
OSEP (the Office of Special Education Programs) published the model forms that were required to be made available at the time IDEA's regulations were made final. This includes model forms on the IEP, the procedural safeguards notice, and prior written notice. Find the model forms at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/idea2004.html#tools

8-24-06