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The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) endorses legislation to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) - the law that ensures each child with a disability the right to receive a free, appropriate public education.
Over the past 25 years, millions of children with disabilities have received special education and related services as a result of the enactment and implementation of IDEA. Today, more than 2.8 million students with learning disabilities are receiving special education services designed to meet their unique educational and behavioral needs. Such services allow these students to achieve the highest possible educational outcomes, providing the foundation for a full and productive life beyond school.
However, the lack of adequate federal funding is hampering states' ability to hire professionals, provide training and other resources and ensure that school districts are able to offer quality programs and services to all students with disabilities. States need the federal government to become a stronger partner and to assume their fair share of the costs. With an on-budget surplus of more than $125 billion, the Nation is in an excellent position to further invest in this critical program and keep its promise to supply substantial funding to help states offset the increased costs of providing a free, appropriate public education for all students with disabilities.
Policy Recommendations
- Achieve the promised 40 % of the average per pupil expenditure (APPE) within the next five years by increasing funding at the rate of $2.2 billion annually.
- Make full funding mandatory by moving it out of the discretionary budget and into mandatory spending.
- Ensure that new funds come from the surplus rather than from other educational programs.
- Ensure that states and districts do not supplant state funds with federal funds.
Since the majority of children with learning disabilities (approximately 80%) have their primary difficulties with reading, early screening measures would pave the way for early intervention and prevention of greater failure. Researchers generally agree that informed implementation of prevention programs will significantly reduce the number of older children who are identified as having learning disabilities and who typically require intensive, long-term special education programs.
NCLD believes that the use of early intervention and prevention programs could, over time, reduce the numbers of children needing expensive special education services because of reading failure. Such a reduction would allow states and districts to concentrate special education funds on students requiring highly specialized instruction and services. At the same time, adoption of early screening techniques, research-based instruction, and aggressive reading intervention programs within the context of regular education could greatly benefit all students.
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NCLD provides national leadership in support of children and adults with learning disabilities (LD) by offering information, resources and referral services; developing and supporting innovative educational programs; promoting public awareness and advocating for more effective policies and legislation to help individuals with LD.
NCLD also calls on Congress to examine ways to encourage states to adopt the use of early literacy screening tools that will help identify young children at risk for reading failure and to use a reading curriculum that reflects scientifically-based reading research. A growing body of converging research on reading development, reading disabilities, and reading instruction can now be used to effectively inform policy and instruction.
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Advocacy Center 