Statement on the progress of the Joint Working Group considering federal education funding refusal
Tennessee Disability Coalition, as well as the families of over 125,000 children with disabilities across the state, are extremely disappointed to see that the Joint Working Group has not heard from experts in the area of Special Education or the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). It is vital that members of the Joint Working Group are fully informed about the state’s role under IDEA in providing special education services and supports to students with disabilities before making any recommendations to the General Assembly.
We are greatly concerned that members of the Joint Working Group, as well as their colleagues in the General Assembly, misunderstand the concerns of special education experts and the disability community. Our concerns are not that special education will go away, that funding for special education will be entirely cut or that kids with disabilities will immediately be systematically excluded from public education. We are primarily concerned that without IDEA implemented in its entirety, including the guarantee and enforcement of rights through federal oversight, the quality of education that children with disabilities receive in our state will suffer.
For the past 50 years, parents of children with disabilities have been able to rely the unqualified promise of IDEA. To renege on this promise is to throw a long-standing avenue of opportunity for children with disabilities into question and disarray. And to make a recommendation on breaking this promise without fully understanding IDEA, the state’s role in implementing the law and the impact of its absence is extremely troubling to the disability community.
If the Joint Working Group chooses to reconvene, we urge its members to solicit information from experts in IDEA and special education. If the goal of this working group is to make a fully informed recommendation to the legislature, this is an absolute imperative. The families of 125,000 children with disabilities who rely on the long-standing promise of IDEA are depending on you to make a recommendation with full knowledge of these high stakes.