If you want a quick review of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), check out this Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, which explains what the law is all about. CRS offers a primer on IDEA’s purpose, eligibility criteria for student coverage under the law, mediation safeguards and complaint procedures, IDEA funding formulas, maintenance of effort (MoE) and supplement-not-supplant (SNS) requirements, and other useful information. In particular, the report emphasizes key statutory and regulatory provisions in IDEA, Part B.
What’s the IDEA?
CRS describes IDEA as both a grants and civil rights statute that provides federal funding for “the education of children with disabilities, and requires, as a condition for the receipt of such funds, the provisions of a free appropriate public education (FAPE).” IDEA contains several safeguard provisions that guarantee FAPE to children with disabilities, including parental rights to resolve disputes via mediation, and to “present and resolve complaints through a due process complaint procedure, and through state complaint procedures.” The law was enacted in 1975, and most recently authorized in 2004.
CRS notes that to qualify for IDEA funding, the child’s disability must “meet the categorical definition of disability,” and must require special education services as a result of the disability to benefit from public education. Categories of disabilities include: autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment. FAPE is carried out via the local education agency’s (LEA) plan to provide special education services, known as the Individualized Education Program (IEP). More specifically, school staff and teachers will work with the student and his or her parents to design an IEP tailored to that child’s needs. States and U.S. territories receive federal funds based on a formula to implement IDEA, and most funds are passed onto LEAs by formula as well.
What’s IDEA, Part B?
IDEA is split into four sections: Parts A, B, C, and D. Part A includes specific terms and definitions for the law and outlines the role of the Office of Special Education Programs, which administers and carries out IDEA. Part B, which the CRS report emphasizes and is of most concern to school districts, lays out education guidelines for students who are 3–21 years old. Meanwhile Part C provides funding and education service guidelines for children with disabilities “from birth through 2 years of age.” (See the Department of Education’s [ED] IDEA website to learn more.) Finally, Part D outlines national activities to help improve the education of children with disabilities overall, which include grants to improve educational and transitional services, and resources to support programs and projects that “contribute positive results for children with disabilities.”
Although IDEA’s most recent authorization was in 2004, funding for Part B, “Assistance for Education of all Children with Disabilities,” is a permanently authorized grant program. This means that the Part B authority for federal appropriations is permanent and “provides for such sums as may be necessary.” Congress is not required to take action on this program to ensure it is continually funded, similar to funding for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
IDEA, Part B: A Closer Look
The rest of the report provides statistics on children with disabilities as well as information about how to identify and evaluate a child with a disability, how IEPs are developed and minimum requirements for IEPs, mediation and complaint safeguards and procedures, discipline procedures for students with disabilities, and funding and compliance information. Here are some highlights:
- CRS reports that in fall 2014, 6.7 million students between ages 3 and 21 who received special education services under the statute had the following “disability distribution,” or different categories of disabilities. Of all categories, specific learning disabilities and speech or language impairments were the most common.
- Specific learning disabilities: 34.9%
- Speech or language impairments: 20.6%
- Other health impairments: 13.2%
- Autism: 8.7%
- Intellectual disabilities: 6.4%
- Developmental delay: 6.3%
- Emotional disturbance: 5.2%
- All other disabilities (combined): 4.8%
- CRS reports the percentage of time that students with disabilities between 6 and 21 years of age spent in a regular classroom under IDEA, Part B in Fall 2014:
- Students with speech or language impairments: 87% spent the majority of their time (80% or more) in a regular classroom.
- Students with a specific learning disability: 69%
- Students with other health impairments: 65%
- Students with emotional disturbance: 46%
- Students with autism: 40%
- Students with intellectual disabilities: 17%
- All students with disabilities sampled (5.94 million): 63%
- Grants to states under IDEA are “often discussed in terms of the percent of the excess costs of education children with disabilities that the federal government will pay,” which is based on the “national average per-pupil expenditure (APPE).” When IDEA was enacted, the federal government determined to pay up to 40% of the APPE. In FY2016, Part B grants to states appropriations were $11.9 billion, or 16% of APPE.
- IDEA State Formula Allocations
- Up to 1% of total appropriated funds are for children with disabilities in outlying U.S. territories and Indian schools, and for providing technical assistance to improve state capacity to meet IDEA data collection requirements.
- The remainder of funds are “allocated by a formula to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.” If the state allocation is “equal to or greater than the amount allocated” in the preceding year, then the formula requires each state to “receive a base grant… the amount received by the state for FY1999.”
- Then 85% of the remaining funds are distributed to states based on their share of “total population ages 3 to 21.” To ensure states don’t receive less or more than certain minimum or maximum amounts, the last 15% of funds are distributed based on states’ share of poor children within the same age range.
- IDEA LEA Formula Allocations
- After funds are set aside for “state-level activities” such as grant administration, monitoring or enforcing complaint investigation, establishing and maintaining a mediation process, etc., the remaining amount is distributed by formula to LEAs.
- Funds are first allocated to LEAs via base grants, then 85% of the remaining amount is allocated based on LEAs’ student enrollment. The remaining 15% is allocated based on LEAs’ share of children living in poverty, which is determined by the SEA. Unlike state formula allocations, LEA allocations don’t have minimum or maximum grant amounts.
For more information and statistics about IDEA, Part B, read the full report.