Question

"IDEA 2004 goes into effect on July 1, 2005. If the IDEA 2004 regulations are not published until late 2005 or early 2006, how will the law be implemented?"

Answer from the Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates

IDEA goes into effect on July 1, 2005. The IDEA 97 regulations will remain in effect, except where they are manifestly contrary to IDEA 2004, until they are replaced with new federal regulations.

The U. S Department of Education plans to publish proposed / draft IDEA regulations soon - in Spring 2005.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), Department of Education, announced plans to hold seven public meetings for comments about the proposed IDEA 2004 regulations in these locations:

We understand that the final IDEA 2004 regulations will be published in late 2005 or early 2006.

Your State Laws & Regulations

State laws and regulations that exceed the IDEA 2004 minimum remain in effect. States must follow them until they are repealed.

So, states that have short-term objectives (or benchmarks) in their statutes or regulations must include short-term objectives in IEPs until these regulations are repealed.

You should be able to download your state special education regulations from the website maintained by your State Department of Education.

Efforts to repeal state laws and regulations are underway in some states. We hope advocacy groups in these states will fight to stop them, as recently happened in Massachusetts.

Source: The Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates

IDEA Publications, Reports, Resources

Many legal, educational and disability organizations have published reports about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004).

To see how different organizations - the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), Congressional Research Service, Council of Exceptional Children, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) - view IDEA 2004, go to the IDEA 2004 Publications & Resources Page.

Learn more about IDEA 2004: Download the full text of IDEA 2004; read articles, reports, comparisons; IDEA 2004 news.