EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116
Chaska, MN
55318
952-361-4931
http://www.EdAction.org
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Special Ed Alert!
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the special education
law, is going through full committee markup in the US House TOMORROW April 9th.
There are two major concerns with this bill that have their best chance of being
corrected in this committee meeting before the bill goes to the House floor.
If these problems are not addressed before this bill is passed, we will be under
numerous federal mandates in special education, especially regarding labeling
and drugging for the next 5 or 6 years:
1) The Child Medication Safety Act has not been changed to prohibit
coercion of ALL medications. This bill (HR 1170), about which we have
written before (http://www.edaction.org/2003/03Mar24.htm),
is going to be rolled into IDEA tomorrow. Although we are pleased that
they are dealing with the issue and Schedule II stimulants are a big part of the
problem, there is a large potential downside.
Prohibiting coercion of just one group of drugs will create incentive to coerce
with any of the others, including the non-stimulant, non-Schedule II ADD drug
Stratera as well as the SSRI, anti-psychotics, etc. that are not on any IDEA
Schedule. People could argue endlessly about which drugs to include and which to
leave out, but the bottom line is that no child should be forced to take,
and no parent should be threatened with losing their child to child protection
or having their child kicked out of school because they refuse to have their
child take drugs.
The issue is not which drug, but that coercion to take any medication
should not be happening in schools under IDEA.
2) There is language in IDEA about "pre-referral services"
that will "develop and maintain a coordinated, comprehensive, educational
support system for students in kindergarten through grade 12 (with a
particular emphasis on students in kindergarten through grade 3) who are not
enrolled in special education but who need additional academic and behavioral
support to succeed in a general education environment."
This sounds nice and the intention is to prevent kids from needing special
education by doing prevention, but it will have terrible unintended
consequences. The words "academic," "behavioral" and
"support" are not defined.
The way that a child will be identified as needing these services is not
defined, there is no discussion of consent, and the type of services are not
defined. Any child that says or does anything including statement of views
that are politically incorrect could potentially be "pre-labeled" as
needing services. These services may include psychotherapy, counseling, or even
drugging, in essence creating an endless stream of kids for IDEA.
The emphasis on kindergarten through grade three is also a problem.
Accurate diagnosis of behavior issues in young children is very difficult.
The American Psychiatric Association said of Attention Deficit Disorder,
"At present, there is growing evidence that two valid dimensions of
impairing ADHD behaviors can be identified, but there is no evidence of a
natural threshold between ADHD and "normal" behavior.
. . . Thus, there is little evidence at this time to suggest
that there is a natural boundary for the diagnostic category of ADHD."
These are probably the most important legislative emails or calls you can make
this year with regard to coercion and protecting children from the dangers of
the mental health system in schools. Please do what you can below.
What to do:
1) Please send a brief email or call and leave a message for the two
Committee Staff who are working on this legislation.
David Cleary david.cleary@mail.house.gov
Melanie Looney melanie.looney@mail.house.gov
Phone - 202-225-4527
Thank them and the Committee for working on these issues of coercion and
prevention, but then let them know your concerns.
Tell them if you are an education or mental health professional, if you have had
any experience with these situations, or if your child has been the victim of
labeling and drugging. Let them know especially if you have experience
with children being inaccurately labeled at a young age or drugged with drugs
other than Ritalin, Adderall, or dexedrine for IDEA.
Tell them that the schools, who have a vested interest in receiving federal
funds, should not be involved in the decision to drug a child, and that, if it
does happen, then at least that decision should be between family and physician.
Remind them that even according to the WHO and the Surgeon General, the younger
the child, the less accurate the diagnosis (label).
Ask them to change the legislation for Wednesday's meeting to prohibit
coercion for any drug and to either remove the term
"behavioral support" from the section on pre-referral services or define
it and give the same parental consent and procedural safeguards to those
children as to the ones in IDEA.
2) CC your email or call to the staff of Congressman Boehner, the
Chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Jeff Dobrozsi jeff.dobrozsi@mail.house.gov
Phone 202-225-6205
3) Email or call as many of the Members of the Committee listed below
as you can, as well as your own Congressman/woman.
Respectfully ask them to ask Mr. Boehner to make the above changes, or, if they
are on the Committee, to offer amendments on Wednesday to make those changes.
You can find the office numbers and Staff names by going to http://www.congress.org
and click on US Congress on the left side of the home page, then enter their
last name. Click on staff and look for the education staffer. If you
call or fax the numbers are at the bottom of that staff page. If you wish
to email, email the education staffer and ask them to make your views known to
the Member. The email address is always firstname.lastname@mail.house.gov.
*Denotes Co-co-sponsor of the Child Medication Safety Act:
*John A. Boehner, Ohio, Chairman
Republican Members (27) Democrat Members (22)
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
(Vice Chairman) George Miller, California
(Ranking Minority Member)
*Cass Ballenger, North Carolina Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
*Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Major R. Owens, New York
Howard "Buck" McKeon, California Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
*Michael N. Castle, Delaware Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
*Sam Johnson, Texas Lynn C. Woolsey, California
James C. Greenwood, Pennsylvania Rubén Hinojosa, Texas
*Charlie Norwood, Georgia Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Fred Upton, Michigan John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Ron Kind, Wisconsin
*Jim DeMint, South Carolina Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Johnny Isakson, Georgia David Wu, Oregon
Judy Biggert, Illinois Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Susan Davis, California
*Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio Betty McCollum, Minnesota
Ric Keller, Florida Danny Davis, Illinois
Tom Osborne, Nebraska Ed Case, Hawaii
*Joe Wilson, South Carolina Raúl M. Grijalva, Arizona
Thomas Cole, Oklahoma Denise L. Majette, Georgia
Jon C. Porter, Nevada Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
*John Kline, Minnesota Timothy J. Ryan, Ohio
John R.Carter, Texas Timothy H. Bishop, New York
*Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado
Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee
Phil Gingrey, Georgia
*Max Burns, Georgia
4) Please pass this alert on to others concerned about this issue.
THANK YOU!!!