Education Department to dismantle ERIC system

IDEA Reauthorization Update

First, a bit of history to refresh your memories…On June 12, The Senate introduced its bill (S. 1248) to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which officially expired in 2002. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), Chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Committee, introduced the bill, entitled "The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2003."

To access the full text of the bill, go to: http://health.senate.gov/bills/013_bill.html

The Senate HELP Committee marked up this legislation in the form of a substitute bill on Wednesday, June 25, and passed it by a 21-0 voice vote. To read the full text of a release that summarizes the substitute bill, go to: http://gregg.senate.gov/press/press061203.pdf

Although the mark up was initially intended to be open to the public, it was eventually held in a closed room and considered by the Senate Committee members. To read CEC’s Preliminary Analysis of S. 1248 prior to committee mark up go to: http://www.cec.sped.org/pp/CECRecommendations_S1248.pdf

The next step in the legislative process is for the bill to be considered by the full Senate. Since there are only a few legislative days left in July before Congress leaves for its August recess (from August 4th - September 1), and the Senate is due to work on the FY ‘04 Defense, Homeland Security, and Energy Appropriations bills, it is unlikely that there will be floor time for IDEA. Therefore, the Senate’s IDEA reauthorization bill will most likely be taken up again in September after the August recess.

FY ’04 Appropriations Update

HOUSE. The House Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, approved the draft bill for FY 2004 appropriations (H.R. 2660) on June 19th, by a vote of 11 to 7. The full Appropriations Committee followed suit on June 25th, with a vote of 33-23. The full House approved the bill without amendments on July 10 by a vote of 215 to 208.

The House bill provides only a $2.3 billion, or 4.3% increase over FY ‘03, for a total of $55.4 billion for the Education Department. This is the smallest increase in eight years, and freezes 67 programs. It specifically falls $1.2 billion short of what was promised for IDEA and $334 million below what was promised for Title I in the FY ‘04 Budget Resolution (which would have added $2.2 billion in fiscal 2004 for IDEA Part B). It also freezes the Pell Grant maximum award at $4,050 and all campus-based student aid programs. The House bill also provides only $11.2 million for Javits Gifted and Talented programs, the same as in FY ’03.

SENATE. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, approved the draft bill for FY 2004 appropriations (S. 1356) by a vote of 11 to 3 on June 25th. The full Appropriations Committee followed suit on June 26th, with a vote of 25 to 4.

According to Hill sources, S. 1356 will be considered after the summer recess in August, as the FY ‘04 Defense, Homeland Security, and Energy bills will consume debate time this month, leaving no time for considering the Labor/HHS/ED bill. Senate Republican leadership is concerned that the controversial labor provision regarding over time pay would bog down Senate consideration of S. 1356 before the recess.

According to Senate Democratic staff, Democrats have chosen not to offer one large education amendment when the bill is taken up on the floor, but have opted to offer a number of targeted education amendments. The following Senators plan on offering the following amendments:

Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), Ranking Member of the Appropriations Committee, will offer an amendment to increase Title I funding by $6.15 billion or the amount that is needed to fully fund Title I at its authorized funding level of $18.5 billion. The increase would be offset by FY ‘03 advance funding.

Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and James Jeffords (I-VT) will offer an amendment to increase IDEA funding by $1.2 billion to provide the full $2.2 billion increase promised for IDEA in the FY ‘04 Budget Resolution.

Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) will offer a "Pell plus" amendment, which would increase the Pell Grant maximum award by $450 to $4,500 and increase funding for a number of student aid programs including, GEAR UP, TRIO, SEOG and Work Study.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will offer an amendment to increase After school funding by $250 million above the $1 billion in the House and Senate bills.

Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) will offer an Hispanic Education amendment, to add approximately $200 million for a number of education programs including the bilingual education, HEP

CAMP, Migrant Education, Drop-out Prevention and Parent Centers programs.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) will offer an amendment to increase Rural Education funding by $133 million to bring total funding to $300 million.

* Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and James Inhofe (R-OK) will offer an amendment to increase funding for Impact Aid by $187 million.

Democrats may offer a number of other amendments including ones on Teacher Quality, School Renovation, and NCLB implementation; however, these amendments are currently not finalized.

In addition to these amendments reported in the works, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) is apparently seeking support for an amendment to increase IDEA by $1.2 billion, but would offset that amount by a 0.87% across-the-board cut on the whole bill, including education. This could cut Title I, for example, by $100 million, and would reduce many other programs that are frozen in the bill to less than FY ‘03 levels. While CEC is pleased that Sen. Gregg is supporting increased IDEA funding, we would oppose any amendment that would depend on an across-the-board cut to other education programs.

The Senate bill, like the House bill, also provides only $11.2 million for Javits Gifted and Talented programs, the same as in FY ’03. Following, please see a chart comparing the House and Senate appropriations bills.

(In Millions) HOUSE SENATE

IDEA State Grants

Part B Grants to States $9,874,398 $9,858,533

Preschool Grants 390,000 390,000

Part C Infants & Toddlers 447,000 447,000

Part D National Activities

State Improvement Grants $51,364 $44,000

Research and Innovation 77,210 77,210

Technical Assistance & Dissemination 53,481 53,133

Personnel Preparation 91,899 91,899

Parent Information Centers 26,328 26,328

Technology & Media Services 38,110 39,361

Total, Special Education 11,049.8 11,027.5

Javits Gifted & Talented 11,177 11,177

Education Department Issues RFP for “New ERIC” System

If you’ll recall, last April, the U.S. Department of Education issued a draft plan for a "New ERIC" system. Under the plan, there would be a dramatic change in the content of the ERIC database, and all 16 Clearinghouses and their services will be eliminated. This includes the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education (ERIC EC), which has been serving the public since 1966. The public had an opportunity to comment on the plan until May 9, 2003.

The draft plan for the "New ERIC" would have made the following changes:

· Closes all 16 ERIC Clearinghouses, including the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education at the Council for Exceptional Children

· Eliminates personalized information services tailored to individual needs

· Terminates AskERIC and clearinghouse question-answering services

· Ends all networking and outreach activities, including ERIC-sponsored discussion lists

· Shuts down Clearinghouse Web sites currently visited by 22.5 million unique visitors a year; ERIC EC alone had 5.7 million unique visitors in 2002

· Eliminates all ERIC publications, including digests, books, and other syntheses

· Reduces coverage of the journal literature from 1100 journals to an estimated 400 journals; conceivably, the journals of critical importance to you would not be included

· Restricts consumer access to information, limiting ERIC database coverage to "approved lists" of journals and document contributors

The Department received over 3,000 comments from the field on the draft plan, including many from CEC members, in support of the current ERIC Clearinghouse system.

Unfortunately, on June 27th, ED recently issued an RFP that contained only minor changes from its earlier draft.

The RFP calls for “an organization or team of vendors to operate an online bibliographic and full-text ERIC database of education journal articles and non-journal materials that is highly efficient and easy to use for educators, researchers, and the general public.”

There is no provision for user services (question answering), publications, training, outreach, etc. The RFP is strictly for the development, maintenance, and enhancement of the database.

To read the full text of the RFP, go to:

http://www.eps.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/ED-03-R-0018/Attachments.html

Following is a press release issued by the National Education Knowledge Industry Association (NEKIA) - of which the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, which is housed at CEC, is a member - concerning the Education Department’s Request for Proposals (RFP) for the design of a new ERIC Clearinghouse system.

***************************

U.S. Department of Education Fails to Respond to 3,000 Public Comments to Improve Current ERIC Clearinghouse System

WASHINGTON On June 27, 2003 the U.S. Department of Education released its contract request for proposal (RFP) to dismantle the ERIC Clearinghouse system significantly rejecting comments from more than 3,000 individuals and organizations dedicated to preserving ERIC's structure which currently offers personalized customer services, more consumer choices and a broad base of information through 16 clearinghouses, according to the National Education Knowledge Industry Association (NEKIA).

The request for proposal made only minor changes to the draft statement of work, despite overwhelming public comment opposing the approach taken by the Department in its draft statement of work. The final RFP continues to eliminate all 16 clearinghouses and replaces them with a single contractor. The RFP provides less content expertise than the current system, and requires fewer customer-oriented services than the current ERIC Clearinghouse system. Individual clearinghouse web sites, which are visited by 22.5 million unique visitors a year, would also be eliminated. The enormously popular ERIC digests that synthesis research findings for educators and the public would no longer be required. The RFP would also limit 1-800 customer phone inquires to technical support on how to use the on-line database, instead of the rich customer-oriented content expertise system of today. In 2001 alone, ERIC received 32,345 phone inquiries.

NEKIA is pleased the RFP has made minor improvements from the draft statement of work, such as expanding the types of documents allowed into the ERIC database. However, we remain concerned about the Department of Education continuing to approve journal and non-journal lists.

NEKIA and its members recommended the following changes to the draft statement of work:

•Promote customer service by continuing clearinghouse web sites, question-answer services, and dissemination functions of the system.

•Maintain access to a broad base of information by not reducing coverage of journal literature or limiting databases to approved lists of journals.

•Expand competition and opportunities to compete.

•Promote quality and consistency of the abstracting and indexing of database entries by maintaining the current ERIC indexing protocols and ERIC Thesaurus.

•Provide sufficient funding in order to implement the needed, but expensive improvements.

•Ensure content expertise by maintaining the current "distributed" structure of clearinghouses that takes full advantage of expertise wherever it is located throughout the country.

“If the Bush Administration truly wants to achieve our shared goals of transforming education into an evidence-based field, our federal system needs to fully support a dynamic knowledge infrastructure that emphasizes customer service, broad content choices and distributed subject expertise," said NEKIA President Jim Kohlmoos. "This is clearly the time to enhance and improve the core infrastructure, not dismantle it."

****************************

Head Start Reauthorization

Next week on Tuesday, July 22, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (Sen. Gregg, R-NH) will hold a hearing on the Head Start program.

Hearing Date: July 22, 2003 - 10:00 AM

Witness List

Windy Hill

Associate Commissioner for the Head Start Bureau

Administration for Children, Youth and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

G. Reid Lyons, Ph.D

Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH

Marnie S. Shaul, Ph.D.

Director, Education, Workforce and Income Security Issues

U.S. General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C.

Amy Wilkins

Executive Director, Trust for Early Education

Washington, D.C.

Janice Santos

Executive Director of the Holyocke-Chicope-Springfield Head Start Center

Springfield, Massachusetts

GAO Report on Highly Qualified Teachers

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has released the following report: No Child Left Behind Act: More Information Would Help States Determine Which Teachers Are Highly Qualified. GAO-03-631, July 17.

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-631

http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d03631high.pdf Highlights

In December 2001, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA). The act required that all teachers of core subjects be highly qualified by the end of the 2005-06 school year and provided funding to help states and districts meet the requirement. In general, the act requires that teachers have a bachelor’s degree, meet full state certification, and demonstrate subject area knowledge for every core subject they teach. This report focuses on the (1) number of teachers who met the highly qualified criteria during the 2002-03 school year, (2) conditions that hinder states’ and districts’ ability

to meet the requirement, and (3) activities on which states and districts were planning to spend their Title II funds. GAO surveyed 50 states and the District of Columbia and a nationally representative sample of districts about their plans to implement the requirement. GAO also visited and interviewed officials in 8 states and 16 districts to discuss their efforts to implement the law. To help states determine which teachers are highly qualified and the actions they need to take to meet the requirement, GAO recommends that the Secretary of Education provide more information to states, especially on ways to evaluate the subject area knowledge of current teachers. The

Department of Education provided written comments on a draft of this report and generally agreed with GAO’s recommendation.

ED Grant Opportunities

******************************************************************

Special Education: Technical Assistance & Dissemination To

Improve Services & Results for Children With Disabilities,

Projects for Children & Young Adults Who Are Deaf-Blind (Federal

****************************************************************** Purpose of Program: This program provides technical assistance & information that (1) support States & local entities in building capacity to improve early intervention, educational, & transitional services & results for children with disabilities & their families; & (2) address goals & priorities for changing State systems that provide early intervention, educational, & transitional services for children with disabilities & their families.

Eligible Applicants: State educational agencies, local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, other public agencies, nonprofit private organizations, for-profit organizations, outlying areas, freely associated States, & Indian tribes or tribal organizations.

Applications Available: July 7, 2003.

Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: August 6, 2003.

Estimated Available Funds: $9.5 million.

Estimated Range of Awards: $30,000-$575,000.

Estimated Average Size of Awards: $179,000.

Additional Information: Applicable regulations, priorities, selection criteria, & other information are available in the Federal Register notice.

Additional information is available online at:

http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2003-3/070303a.html

*******************************************************************

Training & Information for Parents of Children with Disabilities

Program (Federal Register: July 9, 2003 [CFDA# 84.328R])

******************************************************************

Purpose of Program: The purpose of this program is to ensure that parents of children with disabilities receive training & information to help improve results for their children.

Eligible Applicants: Nonprofit private organizations.

Applications Available: July 9, 2003.

Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: August 8, 2003.

Estimated Available Funds: Focus Area 1: $900,000; Focus Area 2: $1,500,000.

Estimated Average Size & Maximum Award Amount: Focus Area 1: $900,000; Focus Area 2: $250,000.

Estimated Number of Awards: Focus Area 1: 1; Focus Area 2: 6.

Additional Information: Applicable regulations, selection criteria, priorities, focus areas, & other information are available in the Federal Register notice.