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November 19, 2004
Union Of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations Welcomes Final Passage Of Federal
Special Ed. Legislation
Today, the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America welcomed final
passage by the U.S. Congress of its reauthorization of the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) - the
legislation which provides the federal template and funding for
services provided to learning-disabled children in the United
States.
The UOJCA has
worked with a broad coalition of allies and members of Congress of
both parties to improve the federal funding program to better
serve learning disabled children in nonpublic, including Jewish,
schools. The UOJCA is pleased with the progress made on this
front.
The UOJCA’s
director of public policy, Nathan J. Diament, issued the following
statement in connection with the bill’s passage:
The Orthodox
Jewish community is grateful to our coalition partners and to
members of the Senate and House for the progress we’ve made over
the last three years in improving IDEA. We particularly note
Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Hillary
Clinton (D-NY) as well as Representatives John Boehner (R-OH) and
George Miller (D-CA) for their receptiveness and working with us
in this process.
Notable
improvements in the revised IDEA include: A mandate that a local
school district must utilize the share of IDEA funds it receives
by virtue of its nonpublic school population count on servicing
that population; a required consultation process to take place
between public and nonpublic school officials regarding the
methods and locations of IDEA services; and a redefinition of a
nonpublic school student's school, rather than their home, as
their IDEA “address.”
We look
forward to working with Education Secretary Designate Spellings
and others in the Bush administration to ensure the regulations
and implementation of this important program achieve the goal of
serving disabled children in our community more fairly.
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