NCLD’s advisor, Professor Tom Hehir from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, authored an Op-Ed on the importance of achievement of students with disabilities that appeared in the Boston Herald on January 8.  Hehir focused on the recent ESEA bill passed by the U.S. Senate Committee that would have largely eliminated main elements of the law that have benefited students with disabilities. Rather than strengthen the ability of schools to respond to the needs of struggling learners, the bill would limit the focus to the bottom 5 percent of schools in each state.  This abandons the achievement of students in the remaining 95 percent of schools.  NCLD and other organizations have advocated to fix the Senate bill.  
 
The Debate now switches to the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The House Committee recently released their own ESEA bills, retreating even further than the Senate Committee on protections for students with disabilities.  NCLD will be providing additional views on these House bills in the coming days.
 
Read Hehir’s Op-Ed on No Child Left Behind and students with learning disabilities.