DATES: We must receive your comments on or before July 28, 2008.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. We will not accept comments by fax or by e-mail. Please submit your comments only one time, in order to ensure that we do not receive duplicate copies. In addition, please include the Docket ID at the top of your comments.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov to submit your comments electronically. Information on using Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents, submitting comments, and viewing the docket is available on the site under "How To Use This Site."
* Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery: If you mail or deliver your comments about these proposed regulations, address them to Tracy R. Justesen, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 5107, Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-2600.
Privacy Note: The Department's policy for comments received from members of the public (including those comments submitted by mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery) is to make these submissions available for public viewing on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. All submissions will be posted to the Federal eRulemaking Portal without change, including personal identifiers and contact information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tracy R. Justesen, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 5107, Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-2600. Telephone: (202) 245-7605.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Invitation to Comment
We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed regulations. To ensure that your comments have maximum effect in developing the final regulations, we urge you to identify clearly the specific section or sections of the proposed regulations that each of your comments addresses and to arrange your comments in the same order as the proposed regulations.
We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of reducing regulatory burden that might result from these proposed regulations. Please let us know of any further opportunities we should provide to reduce the potential costs or increase potential benefits while preserving the effective and efficient administration of the programs.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public comments about these proposed regulations by accessing Regulations.gov. You also may inspect the comments, in person, in Room 5104, Potomac Center Plaza, 550 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each week except Federal holidays.
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking Record
On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public rulemaking record for these proposed regulations. If you want to schedule an appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Background
On December 3, 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 was enacted into law as Pub L. 108-446, and made significant changes to the IDEA. On June 21, 2005, the Secretary published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register (70 FR 35782) (June 21, 2005 NPRM) to amend the regulations governing the Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities Program (Part 300), the Preschool Grants for Children with Disabilities Program (Part 301), and Service Obligations under Special Education Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities (Part 304).
Final regulations for Part 304--Special Education-Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities were published in the Federal Register on June 5, 2006 (71 FR 32396), and became effective July 5, 2006.
On August 14, 2006, the Secretary published final regulations in the Federal Register (71 FR 46540) that addressed more than 5,500 public comments on Parts 300 and 301 that were received in response to the June 21, 2005 NPRM. With the issuance of those final regulations, Part 301 was removed and the regulations implementing the Preschool Grants for Children with Disabilities Program were included under subpart H of the final regulations for Part 300. The final regulations became effective October 13, 2006.
In developing final regulations for the Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities Program, we identified certain issues for which additional regulatory changes might be necessary. These issues, which we address in this NPRM, are: (1) Parental revocation of consent after consenting to the initial provision of services; (2) a State's or local educational agency's (LEA's) obligation to make positive efforts to employ qualified individuals with disabilities; (3) representation of parents by non-attorneys in due process hearings; (4) State monitoring, technical assistance, and enforcement of the Part B program; and (5) the allocation of funds, under sections 611 and 619 of the Act, to LEAs that are not serving any children with disabilities. This NPRM also proposes minor modifications to the consent provisions to correct an inadvertent omission.
Significant Proposed Regulations
We discuss issues according to subject, with appropriate sections of the proposed regulations indicated.
Parental Revocation of Consent for Special Education Services (SUBSEC 300.9 and 300.300)
We propose to amend SUBSEC 300.9 and 300.300 (71 FR 46757, 46783-46784) to permit parents to unilaterally withdraw their children from further receipt of special education and related services by revoking their consent for the continued provision of special education and related services to their children. Under the proposed regulation, a public agency would not be able, through mediation or a due process hearing, to challenge the parent's decision or seek a ruling that special education and related services must continue to be provided to the child.
Under section 614(a)(1)(D)(i)(II) of the Act, agencies responsible for making a free appropriate public education (FAPE) available to a child with a disability under Part B of the Act must seek to obtain informed consent from the child's parent before initiating the provision of special education and related services to the child. Section 614(a)(1)(D)(ii)(II) further requires that, if a parent refuses to provide such consent, the LEA shall not require the provision of those services to the child by utilizing the due process procedures under section 615 of the Act. In these circumstances, under section 614(a)(1)(D)(ii)(III) of the Act, the LEA is not considered to be in violation of its obligation to provide FAPE and is not required to convene an individualized education program (IEP) Team meeting or develop an IEP.
The regulations in SEC 300.300(b) (71 FR 46784) interpret the statutory provision in section 614(a)(1)(D)(i)(II) of the Act to require consent prior to the initial provision of special education and related services; i.e., before a child with a disability receives special education and related services for the first time. However, the regulations do not specifically address whether parents, by revoking their consent, can require a public agency to cease providing their child special education and related services after the parents already have consented to the initial provision of special education and related services and the child has begun receiving those services.
It has been our longstanding interpretation of the current regulations in SEC 300.300(b), and similar regulations that were in effect prior to October 13, 2006, that, although parents have the right to determine whether their child would initially receive special education and related services by providing or withholding parental consent for the initial provision of services, once the child receives special education and related services, parents cannot unilaterally withdraw their child from receipt of special education and related services. If parents no longer want their child to receive those services, yet the public agency believes the services are necessary to ensure that the child continues to receive FAPE, our view was that the public agency had an obligation to continue to provide the services, or if under State law the parent had the right to consent to continued services, to take the necessary steps, which could include using informal means to reach agreement with the parent, as well as requesting a due process hearing, to seek to override the parent's refusal to consent to the continuation of those services.
--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below--
Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
CFR Part: "34 CFR Part 300"
RIN Number: "RIN 1820-AB60"
Citation: "73 FR 27690"
Document Number: "Docket ID ED-2008-OSERS-0005"
Federal Register Page Number: "27690"
"Proposed Rules"
More News:
Market Updates |
Stock Alerts |
All Trading News |
Stock Index
|
|
