The U.S. Senate continues work on a bill to provide relief for schools and other institutions serving students affected by Hurricane Katrina. A bill introduced by Senators Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), S.1715, would provide special Katrina-targeted funds for everything from Head Start through Higher Education, including $10 million for special education students under IDEA.

Meanwhile, President Bush has signed two bills into law that seek to provide flexibility and assistance to students forced to withdraw from college due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Both bills allow the Secretary of Education to waive loan repayments for impacted students. The Pell Grant Hurricane and Disaster Relief Act (H.R. 3169), deals specifically with waiving the repayments for Pell grants and the Student Grant Hurricane and Disaster Relief Act (H.R. 3668), deals with other grant aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, and the TRIO and GEAR UP programs that serve low-income and first-generation students, including students with disabilities.

In addition, the President has signed the Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Affected by Hurricane Katrina and Rita Act (H.R. 3864) which will give individuals with disabilities from hurricane-impacted states greater access to vocational rehabilitation services so they may return to work as quickly as possible.

 Education Secretary Testifies on Implementation of No Child Left Behind

On September 29, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings testified before the House Education and the Workforce Committee on the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Spellings reiterated her commitment to maintaining the core principles of NCLB, such as annual assessments, disaggregated reporting of assessment results (including students with disabilities), and the closing of achievement gaps by ensuring that all students are proficient in reading and math by the 2013-2014 school year. Spellings also announced new flexibility on certain aspects of adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirements for "dramatically impacted" schools and districts for this academic year.

The committee also heard testimony from Deborah Jewell-Sherman, superintendent of Richmond, Virginia, public schools, and Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust. Hearing testimony is available at:
http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/109th/fc/
spellingsnclb092905/wl092905.htm

 New Report Shows Many Special Education Students Left Out of NCLB accountability

A new report from the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc. " a non-profit educational consulting firm " reveals that increases in the minimum number of students required to constitute a subgroup (minimum "n" size) under NCLB are leaving a large percentage of special education students out of the accountability system. In fact, the Center's analyses revealed that as the minimum "n" approached 30 students more than half of the special education students in four of the five states studied were "excluded" from formal accountability. With a minimum "n" of 60 students, virtually all of the special education students were excluded from formal accountability.

At least 22 states now require subgroups to include at least 40 students before they are used in the accountability system, with states such as Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin requiring at least 50 students. Some states, such as California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, require subgroups to exceed both a minimum number of students and a minimum percent of the total school population, until the subgroup exceeds a certain threshold. A handful of states, such as Ohio and Nebraska, require their special education subgroups to contain larger numbers of youngsters than other subgroups.

The report can be downloaded from the page at:

http://www.nciea.org/cgi-bin/pubspage.cgi?sortby=pub_date

The report was also the subject of a front page article in Education Week available at:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/09/21/04speced.h25.html

 New Report on Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

The U.S. Department of Education has released its latest report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The report indicates that the percentage of students with learning disabilities (age 14 and older) who drop out of school is 39 percent. While there was been some improvement in the drop-out rate down from 45 percent a decade ago " the rate remains unacceptably high.

The percentage of students with learning disabilities (age 14 or older) who graduate with a standard diploma is 54 percent, up from 47 percent a decade earlier.

The complete report, including a "state picture" of essential data for each state, is available online at

http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/osep/2003/index.html

 Education Appropriations Stalled in Congress

The 2005 federal fiscal year ended on September 30, 2005, with only two FY06 appropriations bills enacted (Interior-Environment and Legislative Branch bills), forcing Congress to adopt a continuing resolution to extend fiscal year 2005 (FY05) funding levels through November 18, 2005.

As reported in the

 , the House and Senate Education Appropriations bills awaiting Congressional action provide the smallest increase in a decade for special education funding to states and school districts.  , the House and Senate Education Appropriations bills awaiting Congressional action provide the smallest increase in a decade for special education funding to states and school districts. May 2005 Legislative Update , the House and Senate Education Appropriations bills awaiting Congressional action provide the smallest increase in a decade for special education funding to states and school districts.

Previous Legislative Updates:
May 2005 
April 2005