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May 13, 2004
Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations Welcomes Senate Passage of S.1248,
Reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
Today, the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America—the nation’s
largest umbrella organization of Orthodox synagogues representing
almost 1,000 congregations nationwide—welcomed passage of S.1248,
the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) by a vote of 95 -3.
IDEA is the federal government’s primary means of funding special
education services in this country. Over the past two years, the
Union, with coalition partners, has worked closely with Senators
Gregg (R-NH), Kennedy (D-MA), Frist (R-TN) and Clinton (D-NY) to
develop improvements to IDEA so that the program better addresses
the needs of special needs children in non-public schools and to
bring the legislation to today’s successful floor vote. The
reauthorization makes it more likely that parentally placed
students in private and religious schools will receive the direct
services they are entitled to through a number of mechanisms
including:
• A thorough
and complete ‘Child Find’ evaluation process;
• Receipt of a proportionate share of IDEA funds;
• Provision of direct services allowed;
• On-site provision of direct services allowed; and
• Mandated record keeping and reporting on private school children
evaluated and determined to have a disability through the ‘Child
Find’ process.
Nathan Diament, Director of Public Policy for the Union, issued
the following statement following the Senate vote:
The Senate
has taken an important step in improving special education for
America’s special needs students - including those special needs
students whose parents choose to enroll them in parochial schools.
Currently, these students rarely receive the direct services to
which they are entitled by law and, if they do receive such
services, must sacrifice valuable education time traveling to and
from a different facility than their own school. The improvements
in this new version of IDEA make it more likely that parochial
school students receive direct services on site. We are grateful
to senate committee Chairman Gregg, Ranking Member Kennedy and as
well as other concerned members of the Senate – including Senators
Frist, Santorum, Clinton and Mikulski -- for their efforts to
improve the education for all of America’s special needs children.
We look forward to working with the Senate-House conference
committee to continue to improve upon this legislation for the
benefit of all children and families.
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