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March 20, 2003
Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations
Commends
House Effort
to Improve Special
Education for Americs’s
Children, Still Improvements
to be Made
Today,
the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America – the nation’s
largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization – welcomed the introduction
of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that attempts to
improve the education of America’s children with special needs. The
“Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act of 2003”
(H.R. 1350), which reauthorizes the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), strives to improve IDEA in a number of important
areas. The Union noted, however, that the proposed legislation needs
further improvements to meet the needs of thousands of children with
special needs who attend parochial or private schools.
The Orthodox Union had previously addressed the reauthorization of IDEA
in a letter to Secretary of Education Rodney Paige. A similar letter,
co-signed by a broad interfaith coalition of education groups, will be
sent to members of the House of Representatives tomorrow urging them to
support the continued improvement in the Child Find and consultation
provisions in IDEA and a request to include language that would mandate
direct services to non-public school special education students consistent
with Supreme Court decisions.
Nathan Diament, the Union’s director of public policy issued the following
statement:
The introduction of
H.R. 1350 is a positive first step toward improving the current system of
special education in this country. It attempts to ensure that all children
with special needs are properly identified by local education
authorities. However, the needs of these children will not be
appropriately met without clear requirements that ensure that states and
localities properly serve all children with special needs with direct,
on-site provision of services.
The Orthodox Union
encourages the House of Representatives to pass legislation that ensures
that all students are equally served in the reauthorization of IDEA by
adequately funding this critical program and demanding results for our
children.
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