Education Subcommittee Hears Testimony on Special Education Paperwork Burden and Accountability System

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Education Reform Subcommittee today heard testimony on several special education-related issues, including the paperwork burden that IDEA programs impose on teachers and administrators and whether the IDEA system promotes accountability on behalf of special needs students. This is the second in a series of hearings to lay the groundwork for reform and reauthorization of IDEA, which House Republicans hope to pass through Congress this year.

     Education Reform Subcommittee Chairman Michael Castle (R-DE) said that the committee will concentrate on “focusing IDEA on the academic achievement of special education students; making the federal special education program more effective and add accountability measures that mirror those envisioned by the No Child Left Behind Act; and examining ways to provide procedural relief without reducing important protections for disabled students and their families.”

     Gregory Lock, the principal of Oak View Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia, said that “paperwork requirements increasingly take teachers away from the clients they serve: the children whose special needs require more - not less - instructional contact time. One of the most valuable things you could accomplish in legislating changes to IDEA would be to find a way to reduce the administrative burden now carried by our school staff so that more of their valuable time can be spent in direct instruction of children.”

     Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL), a strong advocate for reducing the overwhelming paperwork requirements faced by teachers and administrators, said paperwork reduction should be a major focus for Congress in reforming IDEA this year. “No matter which school I visit in Orlando, the message from the teachers is always the same - our bloated government regulations are burying them in paperwork, wasting precious hours that could be spent helping disabled children learn,” stated Keller. “Common sense tells us that teachers should be educating our kids, not filling out paperwork for bureaucrats in Washington.”

     Dr. Patrick J. Wolf, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, said that a central finding in his research was that the results-based accountability system enacted under the 1997 IDEA reforms retains “virtually all of the onerous procedural requirements of the previous system, yet omits components that are essential to holding implementers truly accountable for results. Special education administrators continue to rely upon compliance with procedural rules as the yardstick for judging whether or not a local special education program is succeeding.”

     “The current oversight system for special education falls short of achieving true results-based accountability because it does not standardize certain key requirements regarding the testing of students with disabilities,” Wolf continued. “It also neglects to hold school systems accountable when they persistently fail to achieve results for such students.”

     Dr. Douglas Tynan, director of the Disruptive Behavior Clinic at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, said “Currently, schools draw down special education funds based upon the number of students identified as having a qualifying disability under the IDEA, regardless of disability. This funding model fails to recognize the significant cost differences to education different populations. It also gives parents little choice in programs.” He concluded by saying that a reformed IDEA system should “take into account the differing needs of important subgroups of special education students, empower parents, not lawyers.”

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