Bipartisan Senators Release IDEA Principles for COVID-19 Response

Last week, Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos outlining bipartisan principles they believe should guide any temporary waivers granted under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) during the COVID-19 crisis.

The principles acknowledged that:

• Students with disabilities have a right to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) and services must be provided.
• FAPE, parent engagement, and due process rights cannot be waived, and only narrowly targeted timeline flexibilities should be considered.
• Congress and the U.S. Department of Education must continue their oversight duties to ensure schools meet their obligations under IDEA.
• The U.S. Department of Education must provide robust technical assistance to accompany any timeline extensions; and that Congress must provide $10 billion in emergency IDEA funding.

Why This Matters to CEC Members

The principles are noteworthy because of their bipartisan nature and the fact that both Senators sit on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, where they are considered special education leaders within their respective caucuses. Furthermore, they were able to come to a consensus that the special education field will need additional funding to respond to the crisis.

Grassroots advocacy, led by CEC members, was attributed to coming to that agreement, and likely impacted the negotiated dollar amount.

Action Alert:

We know that your grassroots advocacy is working! To keep up the drum beat for emergency IDEA funding, please follow the simple prompts on CEC’s online platform to add to the approximately 5,000 letters your colleagues have sent to Congress in support of emergency IDEA funding.

CEC encourages you to share this alert with your friends and on social media. You do not need to be a CEC member to join us in action.

To view the letter, go here.