Senator Jeff Sessions Filed amendments to Idea that would remove Protections for Disabled Students

NAMI SCC Website

SENATOR SESSIONS TO OFFER IDEA DISCIPLINE AMENDMENT(S)

Below please find an ACTION ALERT from the Arc regarding IDEA discipline amendment(s) to be introduced next week.

	Call Senator Sessions office at (202) 224-4124 and tell him to withdraw his amendments!
	Call the White House at (202) 456-1414 and ask President Bush to oppose these damaging IDEA amendments so that no child is left behind!

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ACTION ALERT

May 10, 2001

From:

The Arc of the United States
1730 K Street, N.W., Suite 1212
Washington, D.C. 20006
(202) 785-3388 / FAX (202) 467-4179 /
TDD (202) 785-3411 / E-Mail GAOinfo@thearc.org

Background:

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) has filed two amendments to modify the discipline provisions within the IDEA. One or both of these amendments is expected to be offered next week (as early as Monday) during consideration of S.1, the
reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The amendments would gut the due process protections for students with disabilities enacted by a Republican controlled Congress in 1997. The net result of either or both of these provisions is to segregate or exclude students with disabilities.

One amendment would give state or local educational agencies the authority to establish and implement uniform discipline policies for all students, essentially gutting IDEA's discipline provisions. The other amendment would add assaults or threats to assault a school official and threats to carry, possess or use a weapon to existing IDEA discipline provisions, significantly expanding the circumstances under which students with disabilities would be removed from their educational setting, and placed in alternative settings or expelled from school.

Action Needed:

Disability advocates need to bombard the phone lines of Sen. Sessions for the remainder of this week and early next week with the following messages:

	Sen. Session's IDEA amendment(s) will violate President Bush's "Leave No Child Behind" policy by excluding certain students with disabilities whose behavior was not a manifestation of their disability.
	Sen. Session's IDEA amendment(s) are unnecessary, based on the recent General Accounting Office report essentially stating the 1997 IDEA discipline provisions are working effectively and that students with disabilities are not disproportionately involved in violation of school codes.
	Expanding discipline measures to include "threats" are subject to broad interpretation and fraught with dangerous opportunities for school officials to segregate and remove students from school.
	Sen. Session's IDEA amendments do nothing to provide behavioral interventions for students who violate or threaten to violate school code.

PARENTS AND ADVOCATES ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO CALL SEN. SESSIONS OFFICE, (202) 224-4124, THROUGHOUT THE NEXT FEW DAYS URGING THE SENATOR TO WITHDRAW THESE DANGEROUS AND UNNECESSARY IDEA AMENDMENTS.

Advocates should attempt to enlist the help of any and all school authorities, including teachers, in getting Sen. Sessions to withdraw these amendments. Instead, Sen. Sessions should work with federal, state and local officials on how the IDEA '97 amendments can be effectively implemented to improve educational outcomes for all students in a safe learning environment.

PLEASE ACT NOW. TIME IS VERY SHORT. SHARE THIS ALERT WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES.

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