RESOURCES

Disability Sector’s Comments and Recommendations on the Various Bills on Inclusive Education for Children and Youth with Special Needs Filed in the Senate and the House of Representatives

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download Resource [298.25 KB]

  1. In as much as the primary focus of the bills[1] filed in the Senate and the House is the education of children with disabilities, we recommend that the term “Children and Youth with Special Needs (CYSNs)” be changed to “Learners with Disabilities (LWDs)”.
  2. To further strengthen the bills’ focus on the education of learners with disabilities, we recommend the adoption of the following definition of Inclusive Education used in SB 329 that was filed by Sen. Angara.
  3. We strongly support the bills objective “to provide free and appropriate public education and related services” to LWDs.
  4. We recommend an additional provision on Procedural Safeguards.
  5. We also recommend the change of the terms “Inclusive Education Learning Resource Centers” and “Inclusive Education Learning Resource Hub” to simply “Resource Center for LWDs”.

 

[1] Twelve bills have been filed to date -7 in the Senate and 5 in the House. HB 9104 which was approved by the House in the 17th Congress has been refiled in the current (18th) Congress by House Bills 54, 285, 1400 3311 and Senate Bills 69 and 338. The other 6 bills are similar to the Senate version of the Bill which did not reach third reading in the last Congress.