FEDS AIM TO REAUTHORIZE IDEA
The U.S. Department of Education is laying the groundwork for a reauthorization of the nation’s primary special education law.
The agency said it plans to conduct several surveys this fall to gain a better understanding of how the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is being implemented across the country.
Information gathered will be used by the Education Department, Congress and other stakeholders to plan for the law’s next update, according to a Department of Education notice published this month in the Federal Register.
“This study of IDEA is necessary because a decade has passed since the previous IDEA national implementation study, and subsequent developments may have influenced the context and implementation of special education and early intervention,” the notice indicates.
For the study, the Education Department plans to survey every state-level entity that receives funding under IDEA as well as a nationally-representative sample of schools and school districts.
The data collection dubbed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) State and Local Implementation Study 2019 is one piece of the National Assessment of IDEA, which is mandated by Congress, the Education Department said.
The IDEA was last reauthorized in 2004.
