News Release

New Regulations for Special Needs Students Under "No Child Left Behind" Offer Flexibility

Statement by
NEA President Reg Weaver

Washington, D.C. -- NEA is pleased that the Bush administration has finally recognized how building much greater flexibility into the ESEA/"No Child Left Behind" education law is essential to improving overall student achievement and closing the achievement gap.

These much-needed changes in assessing special-needs students were strongly urged by NEA, teachers, parents and many others across the country over the last two years. Now we call on the Department of Education to work with schools, school districts, and states to reevaluate schools that were unfairly labeled as not meeting annual standards due to one-size-fits-all tests being used for students with disabilities and to reexamine many other areas of the law that require additional flexibility.

Unfortunately, many schools and school districts around the country may have been unfairly labeled as "in need of improvement" because their special education students did not perform at a level consistent with their age group.  We call on Secretary Paige to work with states to re-evaluate these schools' "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) scores.  Such a review is needed to ensure that no school is inappropriately labeled as having not met AYP now that the regulations have changed.

We also call on the Department to establish the same flexibility for states and schools in other areas of assessment, especially for English language learners, as well as for additional changes to the law to ensure that schools are not measured just on test results on one day.

We urge Secretary Paige to work with NEA in developing user-friendly materials and training for teachers that will put this policy into effect and help provide teachers the full range of assessment options for students with disabilities.  We want every child to be given the tools that he or she needs to be successful.

We are pleased that some of our suggestions have been incorporated in the Department's new regulations.  We are hopeful that our other suggestions for the "No Child Left Behind" law will also be implemented.  NEA has drafted legislation, the Great Public Schools for Every Child Act, that puts much-needed improvements in place.

December 10, 2003

For More Information:
NEA Communications: 202-822-7200

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.