The main federal law requiring equal educational access to disabled children is up for renewal, and big changes in the special education regulations are possible. Congress will soon begin work to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which was signed into law by President Ford in 1975. Despite a major rewrite in 1997, some people are now calling for another overhaul of special education. Others say a few tweaks and more money are all that's needed for a mostly successful mandate.

	Robbinsdale assistant coach Steve Onsum watches the adapted soccer team he played for as a student at Armstrong High School. Onsum says the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has helped adapted sports. (MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire)

The world has changed dramatically for disabled children in the past 27 years. The federal law requiring a free and appropriate public education has lead to numerous opportunities.

In the gymnasium at Hosterman Middle School in New Hope, the Robbinsdale Robins, take on the Wayzata-Minnetonka Lakers in adapted soccer. The players have physical or health impairments.

On the sideline, Robbinsdale assistant coach Steve Onsum is in his wheelchair, watching the team he played for as a student at Armstrong High School. Onsum says the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has helped adapted sports.

"We had our struggles over the year," Onsum said. "There's been times when we weren't sure we were going to get the budget or the support to continue and grow as a league. I guess having those mandates sort of made it known that we've got to try to give everyone equal opportunities, and what we've got going here is a good thing."

Onsum's team is made up of students from three suburban school districts: Robbinsdale, Hopkins and Mound-Westonka. Craig Fobes is at the game rooting for his 9th grade daughter, Katie. He says he's had to push hard at times to get the Hopkins school district to meet her educational needs.

"I think the people in the school districts are well intentioned people with too much to do and too few resources to do it with," Fobes said. "And as a parent you have to sit out there and push. And I don't think that means that the people in the inside aren't wanting to be responsive, but you've got a finite financial pie to slice up lots of different ways."

That's why most parents, teachers and school administrators say Congress must provide more money when it reauthorizes the IDEA. Since its inception, the law has included a goal of covering 40 percent of the excess cost of special education. But the subsidy has never topped 15 percent.

	VOICES When Congress votes to reauthorize IDEA, either Sen. Paul Wellstone or former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, who's challenging Wellstone in the November election, will cast key votes. Listen to their opinion on the issue. •Listen to Coleman. •Listen to Wellstone.

Colleen Baumtrog is the special education director for the Minneapolis school district. "The number one thing that I hope happens with IDEA reauthorization is that Congress appropriate adequate funding for special education," Baumtrog said. "That is by far and away the most important thing. The budget crisis that school districts across the state and across the nation are going through right now is inexcusable."

The debate over IDEA heated up earlier this year when a presidential panel released its recommendations for a fundamental rethinking of the special education system. The report from the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education proposes more early interventions, greater accountability and an option of private school vouchers for disabled students. It also says it's time for a system driven by student results, rather than rules and regulations.

Christine Jax, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning, says she agrees with that proposed shift in focus.

"It is important for children to be in a climate that is loving and joyous and filled with learning," Jax said. "But if they're not learning what they need to learn to function in society, or function at their highest level, then it hasn't served its first purpose. And so I do think we have to make sure we're focusing in on results."

The commission also wants to provide school districts more flexibility to deal with the complex law and its regulatory burdens. The report recommends simplifying the Individualized Education Program (IEP) needed for every special education student. Up to 10 states would get to experiment with reducing the volumes of required documentation. Commissioner Jax says changes are needed to ease the workload for teachers.

"A lot of our special education teachers are really burned out," Jax said. "They're really pushed to their limits. Teaching is a hard job to begin with. Special education teachers have it harder. It's a lot more physical. It's a lot more emotionally draining and they have in many cases the same student teacher ratio. So I think if they're not happy, the students are not going to be thriving as much, and the parents are going to see that."

But parents and their advocates are leery of proposals to cut paperwork. They rely on IEPs as legal contracts with school districts to ensure their children's educational needs are met. Paula Goldberg of the PACER Center in Bloomington says schools could reduce the paperwork for teachers by lowering their caseloads. She says the IEP is too important.

"It is an accountability measure," Goldberg said. "And it is a way of parents sitting down with the schools once a year planning together as partners what the child is entitled to, what is a major goal, what is a short term objective.And so that would be one of our concerns that provisions in there would be waived."

Goldberg says she doesn't support major changes in IDEA, but she does support increased federal funding. The presidential commission left the funding question for Congress to decide. Some education reformers say an influx of money won't solve the problems they see in special education.

"It's created this kind of perverse incentive sometimes to label kids special education because of the additional aid that comes with it," said Morgan Brown, senior fellow for education policy at the Center of the American Experiment.

Brown says the current system is not serving students, parents or teachers. He says special education costs will continue to soar because too many students are identified as having special needs, especially those in the broadly defined category of "specific learning disability."

"That category is so vague in what it is looking at that there's a lot of concern that we're identifying kids in that category that may not really have learning disabilities but just may be behind instructionally or in terms of achievement," Brown said.

The presidential commission claims thousands of children are misidentified every year. But David Johnson, a professor at the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development, says there's no convincing data that shows a widespread problem with over identification.

"I think it's a matter of looking at it in terms of: what is the alternative if they tightened the gates such that many students who do need and can benefit from special services don't get it, and therefore don't experience the success they could in public education?" Johnson asked. "That's the real crime, and that puts us back to 1975."