Testimony by the Staff
of the
Florida Catholic Conference

I.          Introduction

Hello. My name is Larry Keough.  I am a professional advocate for children.  But today, I am here as a parent of 5 children, two of whom have special needs.

I am speaking as a parent of children who have been enrolled in both private and public schools.

II.                 Time is Now

I believe the time is now to revise IDEA so services are based on need, not what school system a child attends.  As many of you probably know, children parentally placed in private schools do not have specific entitlement to services.

Why should children be penalized simply because their parents, in addition to paying taxes to support the public educational system, pay private school tuition?

It is axiomatic that the cornerstone of academic achievement is continuity. This is especially so for children with special needs.

III.             Location of Services

It is in that spirit that I recommend location of services under citation 300.456 be revised so the LEA is required to provide services on site in the least restrictive environment, which should be the school the child is attending.  Providing services can include the LEA providing personnel on site, or through the proportional calculation, or through a third party contractor.

IV.             Funding

There is an old adage that funding drives policy.  In order for IDEA to be equitable for all children, funding for private school children should be separate and apart from funding for eligible children in public schools.

This funding change would resolve some of the problems in respect to child find.   Presently, child find provides a disincentive to identify special needs children in religious and other nonpublic schools.  There is disincentive because for every child identified in a nonpublic school, the amount of federal dollars available to public school is less.

V.                  Parental Rights

I believe stronger language in parental rights in due process is needed when parents are at odds with the IEP Team.  Even though IDEA loosely states that decisions are to be rendered in the best interest of children, often times the  decision making is not made in the best interest of children, from the parental perspective.  For example, I am aware  of children who are placed in varying educational classrooms, sometimes with one teacher for every thirty to forty    students, some of whom have a profound emotional, physical, or learning disability.  In actuality, your lone teacher in the classroom is forced to expend most of his or her time addressing the profound needs of some students, and as a result, the children with mild to moderate needs are not well served.

VI.      Conclusion

I ask that as IDEA goes through reauthorization, we begin thinking out of the box to create new solutions to old problems.  Thank you.