Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2003
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2003
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise in support of the amendment to fully fund IDEA offered by Senator Harkin and Senator Hagel.
Nearly 30 years ago the Federal Government made a commitment of equal opportunity to our Nation's children with disabilities. With that commitment, we promised that the Federal Government would uphold its end of the bargain and pay 40 percent of the average per-student cost for every special education student. Today, however, the Federal Government is paying less than 19 percent of that cost.
Over the past couple of years, IDEA has received significant increases but, according to the Congressional Research Service, at increases of $1 billion each year, the Federal Government will never fulfill its promise of funding at 40 percent. Further, if annual increases were $1 billion plus inflation, we would not reach the promised level of 40 percent until 2035, more than 30 years from now.
The Harkin-Hagel amendment increases IDEA funding over 8 years by $2 billion per year through mandatory funding. Mandatory funding is what it is going to take because local schools today are already struggling with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, the lack of promised Federal funding, and the dismal financial picture still facing many of our States and local governments. It is going to take real funding through mandatory spending to make up for all of those gaps.
This gap in special education funding, by the way, doesn't just hurt disabled students; it hurts their classmates as well because we are forcing schools to make difficult decisions with regard to which kids get funding. In order to make up for the Federal funding shortfall, many school districts have been forced to take money from their general education budget, which affects every single student. I know we can do better for America's disabled students. Let us not make them wait another 30 years to fully fund this law.
I urge my colleagues to fulfill the promise of IDEA and support the Hagel-Harkin amendment.
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
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AMENDMENT NO. 3148
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Washington [Mrs. MURRAY], for herself, Mr. DeWine, and Mr. FEINGOLD, proposes an amendment numbered 3148.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The amendment is printed in today's RECORD under "Text of Amendments.")
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to offer a bipartisan amendment with Senators DEWINE and FEINGOLD to ensure that our country's most vulnerable disabled students can reach their full potential.
Today the Senate is discussing the IDEA, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. It is a bill that is based on the American principle of equal opportunity. IDEA recognizes that students have a civil right to a free, appropriate public education even if they have special needs that require additional resources. We still have a long way to go to meet the Federal Government's promise to fund 40 percent of special education, and we are working on that challenge.
In the meantime, we need to address the unique needs facing three groups of disabled students, and I am honored to join with Senators DEWINE and FEINGOLD in offering this bipartisan amendment.
Our amendment makes small but very important changes to IDEA to ensure that disabled students who are homeless or who live in foster homes or who have their education disrupted because of their family's military service get the help they need. I thank the following organizations for their help and support of this amendment: The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, the Military Family Education Coalition, STOMP, the Specialized Training of Military Parents, the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, Children's Defense Fund, the National Education Association, the National PTA, the National Court Appointed Special Advocates Association, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Education Task Force.
The consortium represents more than 70 national disability organizations, including the American Occupational Authority Association, the ARC, United Cerebral Palsy Association, Easter Seals, the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education and Teacher Education Division, and the Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Association.
All of those organizations understand the challenges facing our most vulnerable children, and all of them support this bipartisan amendment.
Congress has a long and proud tradition of supporting and protecting educational opportunities for our most vulnerable young people. It is what we did when we passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965. It is what we did when we created Head Start. And it is what we did when we started giving out Pell grants. It is time for us to step up once again and make the changes needed to make IDEA work for homeless and foster children with disabilities and children with disabilities in military families.
I take just a minute to describe the special challenges facing these children and how our amendment will help them. Let me start with foster children. Today in America there are nearly 500,000 children in foster care. Thirty percent of them are in special education. We know foster children often do not function as well in school because of their experiences. Foster children have usually been separated from their biological families because of child abuse or neglect. That can leave both emotional and physical marks for life. Given the shortage of foster parents in our country, children in foster care are often shuttled between many different homes and schools.
One young man shared with me his story of living in more than 100 homes throughout his childhood. Often, every new home means enrolling in a new school. And every new school means starting over again and getting the support and services they need.
In addition to frequent absences and transfers, foster children often do not have parents to advocate for their educational needs. Almost every parent whose child has a disability will tell you that their role as advocate for their child directly impacts the quality of the education their child receives. Without a parent to advocate for them, foster children can languish for years with unrecognized disabilities or insufficient services to help them succeed in school. These experiences can leave children in foster care without the education and support to lead functional, productive lives.
I will share the true story of two foster children in New York City who need the help this amendment provides. Eric and his sister Joanna have been in foster care for 6 years. They have been in four different foster homes and each home was in a different borough. Each time they moved to a new home they were taken out of school in the middle of the school year. Frequently, they were not reenrolled in their new schools for weeks or months, and their records were not transferred from school to school.
Both Eric and Joanna have learning disabilities. Each time they arrived in a new school, the teachers did not know they needed special education services. So over the years, Eric and Joanna missed months of school and have only occasionally received needed services.
Upon their last move to a foster home in Queens, Eric's new high school refused to enroll him because he was 16 and he had no credits. The Advocates for Children assisted Eric and Joanna's case worker in enrolling both students in school after they had been out of school for 3 months. Their advocates also secured records from 2 years ago that show that Eric had obtained 10 credits and passed a regent's exam. Because their records were never transferred, Eric had been placed in the ninth grade for the third time. Eric's current guidance counselor was informed at school and Eric's records are being transferred.
Our amendment helps disabled foster children such as Eric and Joanna by ensuring that their records follow them from school to school quickly and that they have an advocate who is on their side in developing an education plan.
Let me turn to another group of students our amendment will help. Homeless children in our country also face significant hurdles to succeed in school, and these hurdles are higher for homeless children who have disabilities. The Urban Institute estimates that 1.35 million children experience homelessness each year. A high proportion of homeless children with disabilities also need special education services. Yet many have trouble getting the help they need. Children experiencing homelessness are diagnosed with learning disabilities at twice the rate of other children. They suffer from emotional or behavioral problems that interfere with learning at almost three times the rate of other children. These mental and emotional difficulties often begin at birth as infants who are homeless have higher rates of low birthweight and need special care immediately after birth, four times as often as other children.
Like other children and youth surviving in extreme poverty, homeless children and youth face appalling living conditions. Many of these horrific conditions directly contribute to physical, mental, and emotional disabilities.
For example, students experiencing homelessness often suffer from poor nutrition, inadequate health care, higher rates of other health problems, and severe emotional stress related to conditions of extreme poverty and instability.
Unfortunately, even though homeless children suffer from disabilities at a disproportionate rate, children who are homeless are underserved by special education programs. A recent study of children in homeless shelters in Los Angeles found that while 45 percent of the children met the criteria for special education evaluation, only 22 percent had ever received special education testing or placement.
In 2000, 50 percent of States reporting data to the U.S. Department of Education reported that students in homeless situations had difficulties accessing special education programs.
Children who experience homelessness desperately need stability in their lives. But they cannot stay in the same school or even the same district long enough for the individualized education plan to be developed and implemented.
In addition, like foster children, some homeless youth have no legal guardian to watch out for their educational needs and to advocate for their special interests or their best interests. I share the story of a young girl in Virginia our amendment would help. She is a 13-year-old girl. Her mother fled domestic violence. Over the course of 2 years they moved to temporary living situations in several school districts. The girl suffered extreme trauma and was hospitalized on two occasions. The hospital evaluations clearly show that she qualified for special education, and her mother had requested special education services from several school districts. However, because they moved around, no school ever completed the evaluation process. Each successive school started the process from the very beginning. Even when the girl attended a single school for several months, the school did not complete the evaluation process. Instead, it chose to wait it out until the family moved again.
Finally, the girl's mother found a special education attorney to take on her case.
Our amendment would help students like her by ensuring that homeless students have continuous educational services no matter how many times they are forced to move.
Finally, I turn to a third group of disabled students whose special circumstances are often overlooked. Children in military families often experience disruptions in their education because they move frequently. According to the Military Child Education Coalition, 13 percent of children in military families receive special education services or other special support. Further, children in military families move an average of every 2 to 3 years. That translates into attending six to nine schools from kindergarten until high school graduation. Children with disabilities in these highly mobile families need consistent services so they do not fall further behind each time they move.
Especially in times of war, and when parents are serving our country on extended tours of duty, children in military families need support and stability in their lives and in their education.
I would like to share some of the words I received from military families across the country who support my amendment. I received a letter from Natalie Cyphers of McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Natalie writes:
Thank you for your consideration of military families with special needs children. My husband is active duty Air Force and we have a 14-year-old with mild cognitive deficiency. I find one of the hardest parts of our son's education occurs every time we move.
It is difficult to implement the current IEP and often the educators do not realize the importance of continuity for our children.
Any assistance in these situations would be helpful to all of us.
That is from Natalie Cyphers at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.
I also received a letter from Kristina Rice of Boise, ID. Kristina is a parent of a disabled child and a case manager for children with disabilities. She wrote:
The members of highly-mobile military families who suffer most educationally are children with disabilities as transitions are more difficult, and levels of service vary greatly from state to state.
Evaluation processes are cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming, and the children being served do not have the time to wait while new teachers and service providers try to re-create a picture of their needs and re-determine eligibility.
Once several months have gone by without adequate services, a child may regress so far that he or she can lose a whole school year. [The] suggestions in this amendment are practical, fair, and necessary.
Military families already sacrifice enough to serve our country. They do not need the added burden of delayed services for their children.
That is from Kristina Rice, of Boise, ID.
These stories reflect just a few of the many disabled students who this amendment will help.
So, again, specifically, our amendment will help students who change schools or school districts by ensuring that all students receive continued special education services when they transfer schools.
Our amendment ensures that records are transferred quickly so students do not waste critical time.
Our amendment increases opportunities for early evaluation and intervention for homeless and foster infants and toddlers with disabilities, and for children with disabilities in military families.
Our amendment also ensures that these vulnerable children are represented on the State policy committees that decide their future.
In addition, our amendment expands the definition of "parent" to include relatives or other caregivers who are equipped to make sound decisions in a child's best interest when there is no biological parent available to do so. Finally, our amendment improves the coordination of services and information so educational and social services agencies can work together more efficiently to help these students.
As we reauthorize IDEA, we have an obligation to pay extra attention to these children and to provide the resources and support they need. The real test of how we treat children in America is measured in how we treat the most vulnerable among us. This amendment gives us a chance to do the right thing.
I urge the Senate to join with more than 70 national disability, military family, foster, homeless, and education organizations in supporting the bipartisan Murray-DeWine amendment.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.