Special Needs Education Status
This page contains information about the current status and events relating to special needs education in Kentucky.
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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (formerly called P.L. 94-142 or the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975) requires public schools to make available to all eligible children with disabilities a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to their individual needs.
The reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was signed into law on Dec. 3, 2004, by President George W. Bush. The provisions of the act became effective on July 1, 2005, with the exception of some of the elements pertaining to the definition of a “highly qualified teacher” that took effect upon the signing of the act. The final regulations were published on Aug. 14, 2006.
As part of the 2004 IDEA Reauthorization, Congress required that every State Educational Agency (SEA) submit a State Performance Plan (SPP) to the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). See the Kentucky State Performance Plan here.
Infants and toddlers with disabilities (birth-2) and their families receive early intervention services under IDEA Part C. Children and youth (ages 3-21) receive special education and related services under IDEA Part B.
IDEA requires public school systems to develop appropriate Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) for each child. The specific special education and related services outlined in each IEP reflect the individualized needs of each student.
IDEA also mandates that particular procedures be followed in the development of the IEP. Each student's IEP must be developed by a team of knowledgeable persons and must be at least reviewed annually. The team includes the child's teacher; the parents, subject to certain limited exceptions; the child, if determined appropriate; an agency representative who is qualified to provide or supervise the provision of special education; and other individuals at the parents' or agency's discretion.
If parents disagree with the proposed IEP, they can request a due process hearing and a review from the State educational agency if applicable in that state. They also can appeal the State agency's decision to State or Federal court.
Part B and Part C Coverage Trends
Progress in Special Needs Education
Congress enacted what was then the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142) on Nov. 29, 1975. The law was intended to support states and localities in protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, and improving the results for infants, toddlers, children and youths with disabilities and their families.
Before IDEA, many children were denied access to education and opportunities to learn. For example, in 1970, U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities, and many states had laws excluding certain students, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded, from its schools.
Today, IDEA's early intervention programs and services are provided to more than 200,000 eligible infants and toddlers and their families, while about 6.5 million children and youths receive special education and related services to meet their individual needs.
More students with disabilities are attending schools in their own neighborhoods-schools that may not have been open to them previously. And fewer students with disabilities are in separate buildings or separate classrooms on school campuses, and are instead learning in classes with their peers.
When President Bush and Congress set out to reauthorize the IDEA legislation in 2004, they made sure it called for states to establish goals for the performance of children with disabilities that are aligned with each state's definition of "adequate yearly progress" under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Together, NCLB and IDEA hold schools accountable for making sure students with disabilities achieve high standards.
IDEA is now aligned with the important principles of NCLB in promoting accountability for results, enhancing the role of parents and improving student achievement through instructional approaches that are based on scientific research. While IDEA focuses on the needs of individual students and NCLB focuses on school accountability, both laws share the goal of improving academic achievement through high expectations and high-quality education programs.
Through these efforts we are reaching beyond physical access to the education system toward achieving full access to high-quality curricula and instruction to improve education outcomes for children and youths with disabilities.
Evidence that this approach is working can be found in the increase in the number of students with disabilities graduating from high school instead of dropping out.
The National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2), which documents the experiences of a national sample of students with disabilities over several years as they moved from secondary school into adult roles, shows that the incidence of students with disabilities completing high school rather than dropping out increased by 17 percentage points between 1987 and 2003.
During the same period, their postsecondary education participation more than doubled to 32 percent. In 2003, 70 percent of students with disabilities who had been out of school for up to two years had paying jobs, compared to only 55 percent in 1987.
Employment and independence are important pieces of the American Dream. In today's world, getting there depends on having the foundation of a good education. Through IDEA and NCLB, students with disabilities have the support that they need to be the best they can be.
Kentucky Special Needs Regulations
The current Kentucky Administrative Regulations 707 KAR 1:002 -707 KAR 1:380 governing special education programs, revised August 5, 2008, were provided by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. According to these regulations:
- Child with a disability means a child evaluated in accordance with 707 KAR 1:300, as meeting the criteria listed in the definitions in the definition section of the regulations for autism, deaf-blindness, developmental delay, emotional-behavior disability, hearing impairment, mental disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, or visual impairment which has an adverse effect on the child’s educational performance and who, as a result, needs special education and related services.
- The Kentucky Department of Education shall assign a special education mentor to a local school district or a specific school
- A Local Education Agency (LEA) shall make a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) available to all children with disabilities aged three (3) to twenty-one (21) residing within its district’s boundaries who have not received a high school diploma, including children with disabilities who have been suspended or expelled for more than ten (10) school days in a school year. FAPE shall be provided to each child with a disability even though the child has not failed or been retained in a course and is advancing from grade to grade based on the child’s unique needs and not on the child’s disability. An LEA shall not be required to provide FAPE to a student eighteen (18) years old or older, who is placed in an adult correctional facility if, in the educational placement prior to placement in the correctional facility, the student was not identified as a child with a disability and did not have an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
- An LEA shall ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them the variety of educational programs, services, and curriculum as described in the Kentucky Program of Studies, 704 KAR 3:303, that is available to children without disabilities. These educational services may include art, music, industrial arts, consumer and family science education, career and technical education, and other educational services.
- An LEA shall take steps, including the provision of supplementary aids and services as determined appropriate and necessary by the child’s Admissions and Release Committee(ARC), to provide all children with disabilities the nonacademic and extracurricular services and activities that give children with disabilities an equal opportunity for participation in those services and activities.
- An LEA shall ensure that Extended School Year services (ESY) are available to each child with a disability, as necessary, to provide FAPE. The determination of the need for extended year services shall be made on an individual basis.
- A LEA shall to transfer health and education records on migratory children with disabilities who move to other states in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act, 20 U.S.C. 6398.
See Also
- Special Needs Education Portal
- Special Needs Education Legislation
- Parents Special Needs Resources
- Federal Special Needs Legislation
