IDEA

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act which guarantees access to free public education of the six million American children with disabilities. The paper explains that in its 26 year history, IDEA has never been fully funded by Congress. While the paper says that Congress has taken great strides in the last few years, IDEA is still underfunded. The paper cites statistics regarding the educational achievement of people with disabilities and calls on Congress to fulfill their promise of free compulsory education for the handicapped.

From the Paper:

"The basics of the proposal include (i) Making IDEA funding compulsory. (ii) Raise the federal contribution from 17% to 40% (iii) Achieve full funding in a phased manner over six years. (iv) Need states to maintain their level of endeavor (v) Motivate the schools to intervene early the life of the child and offer developmentally suitable programs and services. Developmentally suitable intervention during the initial years can remarkably lower subsequent referrals to special education and ultimately aid in controlling the costs of special education. According to Part B of the IDEA which was the first to be accorded by the Congress to contribute up to 40% of the Average Per Pupil Expenditure -- APPE for every special education student. With 6,153,000 covered under the IDEA, schools are eligible to receive $18.01 billion federal funds. Regrettably, schools are just receiving a paltry $7.5 billon. (National Education Association: IDEA Funding Coalition Offers Proposal -Plan would make funding mandatory)"

More papers on IDEA:

• Analytical Essay # 139493 : "The Idea of Wilderness" - A Book Review"
• Analytical Essay # 141449 : "The Public Education Struggle to Mesh NCLB and IDEA"
• Term Paper # 94218 : "The IDEA Act"
• Research Paper # 32659 : "The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)"

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