The Role of Special Education Interest Groups in National Policy ...

education eligibility, under IDEA, is thus an educational determination. The student must have one of the disabling conditions articulated in the statute, and that disability must negatively affect learning. Students with disabling conditions not defined under IDEA (e.g., spina bifida), or students who have a disability that does not adversely affect learning, do not qualify for special education services under IDEA.³⁰ The student who is found eligible for special education may also require related services. These are services that enable the student to benefit from special education. Such services include, for example, speech therapy, counseling, door-to-door transportation, or physical therapy. The eligibility for and the extent of related services are determined by the IEP team.

The core mandates of the statute include a provision for a free appropriate public education for eligible youth from birth through 21. Finally, IDEA provides procedural safeguards, which give parents the right to examine records and to obtain an independent educational evaluation, as well as require schools to give a prior notice to the parents and obtain consent when proposing to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, or placement of a child. If there is a dispute between parents and school officials, the parents can appeal the proposed IEP to an administrative hearing officer, and if unsatisfied with the ruling, to the federal court system. The act has been reauthorized in 1983, 1990, 1997, and 2004.

Special Education Advocacy Organizations

There are hundreds of national support groups listed in the fields of disabilities and special education on the Web. These groups vary in their issue scope, constituency base, and the level of government at which they function. For example, some groups operate mainly as support groups at the local level, or offer services to people with disabilities and their families (e.g., advocacy, information, rehabilitation). Other organizations focus their efforts on state-level activities, while some organizations pursue policy changes at the national level, and may or may not have active local chapters. Some of these organizations are formed to address issues of a specific disabled population (e.g., Learning Disabilities Association