Tell Congress: Don't Harm Kids with LD

About the Issue

ESEA in the U.S. Senate: On October 20, 2011, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed legislation that would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (more commonly known as No Child Left Behind). The goal of the bill was to address shortcomings since the law's passage in 2001. Despite some improvements, the legislation passed by the HELP committee also seriously jeopardizes the law's central focus on improving the achievement of disadvantaged students, including the nation's 5.8 million students with disabilities of which 2.4 million have learning disabilities.

Despite its flaws, No Child Left Behind has required schools to focus on the learning of students with disabilities and ensure that schools are responsible for the success of all students. To ensure students with disabilities remain a priority, urge the Senate to fix its bill by setting academic performance targets, graduation goals and a requirement to improve instruction in struggling schools.

Learn more about our fight to help fix No Child Left Behind.

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Dear [Decision Maker], I am writing about the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on October 20, 2011. While there are several provisions which are worthy of support, I have concerns regarding the bill’s lack of focus on results for all students with disabilities. I recognize the urgency to update the No Child Left Behind Act to better assist our nation’s most disadvantaged students. I ask you not to move this bill to the full Senate unless the changes I recommend are made.

• Please personalize your email - required I appreciate the HELP Committee bill’s provisions that support learning opportunities for students with disabilities and for the Committee’s efforts to find bipartisan agreement. Specifically, I am encouraged to see language supporting: • Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS); • Universal Design for Learning (UDL); and, • Limiting the use of an alternate assessment for students with disabilities. While the Senate bill includes critical elements for improving academic achievement for students with disabilities and other disadvantaged students, my major concern is with the bill’s narrowed accountability focus on the bottom 5% of schools. Since disability is part of the human condition and most students with disabilities attend their neighborhood schools, students with disabilities are not clustered in the worst performing schools but are spread throughout our country’s schools – urban, rural, and suburban. Unfortunately, the Senate bill would limit the requirement to actively intervene and provide instructional support to the students in poorly performing schools to the bottom 5% of schools, including high schools with extremely low graduation rates. While these schools should certainly be required to undertake improvement activities, this narrow approach would leave millions of students with disabilities in schools with little, if any, focus on their academic performance. To ensure students with disabilities remain a priority, the Senate’s bill should: • ensure all schools are held accountable for the academic performance of all student groups—including students with disabilities—in both closing achievement gaps and raising graduation rates • include performance targets to help assure that all students are making steady progress toward college and career ready standards • set graduation goals so the vast majority of students are graduating with a regular diploma • require all schools to provide instructional support when any group of students—including students with disabilities—are not meeting performance targets and graduation goals. As a Nation we must have an expectation that all students graduate college and career ready and this won’t happen unless this bill sets academic performance targets, graduation goals and requires improved instruction in struggling schools. Without this, we will lose a critical focus on the academic achievement and graduation of students with disabilities. I urge you to consider the impact of this bill on students with learning disabilities and other vulnerable students.

Thank you for considering my views on this important issue. Sincerely, [Your Name] [Your Address] [City, State ZIP]

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