[Bridging_the_digital_divide] IDEA will allows for Supplemental Materials

[bridging_the_divide at touchsmart.net]

New IDEA Will Allow for Supplemental Materials
AEP Position Prevails in IDEA Conference Committee Report

WASHINGTON--Congress has approved a key provision that will permit 
teachers to use supplemental instructional materials to support the 
instruction of children served in programs authorized by the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The provision is in the IDEA Conference Committee report, which both 
the House of Representatives and the Senate approved today.

IDEA bills passed earlier this year set the expectation that reading 
instruction offered in pre-referral or early intervening programs must 
be grounded in a scientifically based, comprehensive reading 
instruction program as required by the No Child Left Behind Acts (NCLB) 
Reading First program. The expectation would have created an inferred 
prohibition of supplemental instructional materials, which are often 
the instructional materials that children in IDEA programs need the 
most.

"This is a wonderful victory for special needs kids and a clear 
recognition of the value of the learning resources supplemental 
publishers provide," said Charlene F. Gaynor, executive director of the 
Association of Educational Publishers. "We commend the legislators 
whose conviction and action have thrown open the window of success to 
all types of learners."

Supplemental materials take a variety of forms including workbooks, 
readers, software and hands-on products. Most supplemental materials 
are targeted to certain types of students or sub-groups of students, 
and many such materials are based on research.


The language on supplemental materials in the committee report reads:

"The Conferees believe that early intervening services should make use 
of supplemental instructional materials, where appropriate, to support 
student learning. Children targeted for early intervening services 
under IDEA are the very students who are most likely to need additional 
reinforcement to the core curriculum used in the regular classroom. 
These are in fact the additional instructional materials that have been 
developed to supplement and therefore strengthen the efficacy of 
comprehensive core curriculum. Per the requirements of NCLB, core 
curriculum must meet standards of scientific rigor. As supplementary 
materials to these core programs, they are aligned with and designed to 
reinforce the skills taught in these comprehensive research-based 
texts."

Throughout the negotiations, AEP maintained that supplemental 
materials, by their nature, augment the provision of a comprehensive 
scientifically based reading program. Core instruction in each of the 
five essential reading components defined in NCLB--phonemic awareness, 
phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency and reading 
comprehension--should be reinforced by supplemental instructional 
materials to ensure student success.

"Children targeted for IDEA pre-referral or early intervening services 
are the very students who are most likely to need additional 
reinforcement from supplemental materials," Gaynor said. "By 
definition, these children are not mastering required skills when 
provided with regular instruction. They need targeted services that are 
often best delivered using supplemental materials."


---

Jason Barkeloo
President
TouchSmart Publishing
6522 Waldorf Place
Cincinnati, OH  45230
http://www.touchsmart.net
t: 513.225.8765
f: 206.666.4856

This electronic mail (email) communication, and any files transmitted 
with it, are confidential, and intended solely for the indicated 
recipient(s). Any review, use, or distribution by anyone other than the 
intended recipient(s) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this 
e-mail in error, or are not the intended recipient, please notify the 
sender, and delete all copies immediately.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 4150 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/bridging_the_divide/attachments/20041122/43a50f9b/attachment.bin