A bad IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Washington Monthly, May, 1996 by Dante Chinni

New York's Mahopac Central School District will spend roughly $3.2 million on the transportation of its 4,400 students this year, an average of $727 per child. But about $68,000 of that will be spent on the transportation of just one child--a child whose classroom is nearly 400 miles away at the New York State School for the Blind in Batavia. Every week he is driven to White Plains so he can catch a plane to Rochester, where a car takes him to school. And, thanks to the nation's special education law--the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)--Mahopac must pick up the bulk of the tab for the boy's weekly round-trip and schooling.

The IDEA was created in 1975 to help level the education playing field for disabled children, many of whom were receiving little or no education in out-of-the-way, makeshift classrooms. But since then, the law has gone far beyond its goal of ensuring adequate schooling by providing some kids with extravagantly expensive instruction. The law puts no limit on the cost of special education, and then leaves school districts to pay the bills.

In Mahopac, the IDEA will force the district to spend $98,000 on the education and transportation of that one child this year, although Mahopac school officials believe the child could get an appropriate education at a nearby regional school for $60,000 less. And Mahopac's story is not an anomaly. Schools in Yorktown and Yonkers have kids on that same plane to Batavia. The Washington Post recently reported that three counties abutting Washington D.C. will spend nearly $50 million this year on 1,800 disabled students. One student alone has cost $500,000 so far.

In a time of shrinking resources for education, districts are meting out unconscionable amounts of money for a few children-more often than not, disabled children with affluent parents who can afford to force the system to provide the best for their kids. It's not that children with disabilities don't deserve a good education. But as some parents wrangle costly benefits for their kids, other children--those who are disabled but have parents unable or unwilling to fight the system, or those born with disadvantages such as poverty--are paying the price.

Given the Republicans' famous disdain for unfunded mandates, many school boards thought the GOP Congress would either fully fund the IDEA or ease its requirements. They were wrong. As the Republicans prepare to reauthorize the IDEA, they appear to be opting for a bold third option: Fix some of the law's problems, but leave the most pressing one--funding--unaddressed. On this issue, Washington's revolutionaries are caught between their desire to avoid spending a dime more on domestic programs and their fear of a powerful parents' lobby. Instead, like the Democrats before them, the Republicans are content to continue offering some disabled kids the best education money can buy, and sticking districts like Mahopac with the bill.

The $60,000 Question

Like many of the legislative quagmires born in Washington, the IDEA began with the noblest of intentions. In 1975, Congress passed the law proclaiming that each child deserved a "free, appropriate" education in the "least restrictive environment." It seemed the very model of egalitairian rule. Since each disabled child has unique problems, the law said, each deserves his own educational plan tailored to his specific needs. And when skeptics questioned the law's funding, Congress quickly calmed fears with a promise that Washington would cover up to 40 percent of the IDEA's cost. The key words: "up to."

President Ford, who signed the bill only when it became clear that Congress had the numbers to override a veto, warned of the problems the IDEA would cause down the road. "Even the strongest supporters of this measure know as well as I that they are falsely raising the expectations of the groups affected by claiming authorization levels which are excessive and unrealistic." And while the words "political visionary" and "Gerald Ford" are seldom uttered in the same breath, he correctly saw the road ahead on this one. Federal funding, which has never neared 40 percent, stood at 8 percent last year and will likely stay there for the foreseeable future.

In South Portland, Maine, the public schools plan to launch a $120,000-a-year special program next year to educate four severely autistic children. Its cost for the district is substantial--the state will pay only 35 percent--but the district is creating the program to save money, according to South Portland's special education director, Bob Powers. Right now, the district is spending about the same amount to send the autistic kids to private schools. With the new program, if a few more autistic kids enter the district, the cost-per-pupil will drop. Saving money in special education has become a priority for South Portland: The district has seen its special education budget rise 44 percent in four years. It's now 15 percent of the total budget.

In New Jersey, meanwhile, James and Maryann Riordan are using the IDEA in a fight to keep their autistic 10-year-old son, Willie Joe, in a residential treatment program. They say it is the only place he can grow and get anything close to a real education. The problem? The placement costs about $100,000 a year--a big bill for the Hasbrouck Heights school district to cover. The district is sympathetic to the Riordans' plight but is fighting the plan because of its cost. Instead, it is proposing a special day-school for Willie Joe that it believes would give him an appropriate education and would cost "only" $121 a day. The district's plan would save the schools roughly $70,000, but the Riordans will have none of it.