College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Madam Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment that will bring the Nation closer to providing a world-class education to 2.9 million children with disabilities.

The last few years we have seen significant advances in diagnosis and understanding of students with autism, ADD, dyslexia, Down's Syndrome, and a dozen other common and treatable disabilities. Where people once thought these students were unmanageable and unteachable, we now know that more often than not, the majority of them are bright, creative students who are capable of success when given the opportunity to learn.

In 1975, we took a major step forward with the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA placed many students with their peers, where the bar was raised on their achievements, and we began to discover how truly capable these students were.

Over the last 33 years, educators have revolutionized techniques to help students with disabilities find success, but these tools have not yet made their way into the vast majority of classrooms. And as a result, the system is failing millions of students.

The fact that so many students with disabilities, well over half, now study alongside their peers is a tribute to the success of IDEA. But because most educators have not been given the information, resources, or training to effectively work with students with disabilities, the teachers are getting understandably frustrated, the diverse learners are not being helped, and the rest of the class waits while teachers struggle to deal with situations for which they are simply not equipped. The bottom line is it does no good to put students with disabilities in a classroom with a teacher who has not been given the tools to reach them.

Make no mistake, the teachers are not the problem, but with proper resources, they can be a big part of the solution. Many teachers have not been trained to individualize instruction for these special needs students.

This isn't a straightforward manner of simply developing special curricula. Spending time with peers is crucial for the development of these students, especially if we want them to attain the social, communicative, and educational skills we know they are capable of.

One area I have focused on is educated children with autism. Without the proper training, misconceptions, such as the Rain Man savant, run rampant. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that the Hollywood depiction is an extreme, with highly functional students with Aspbergers on the other end and every level of functionality in between. The signals are abundant, but recognizing them is not just a matter of common sense.

The untrained educator may not know why a student with autism refuses to make eye contact, suddenly stops socializing, acts out, or completely cuts off all communication. What's more troublesome is that the wrong response, in many cases the normal, logical response, can send a child into a downward spiral.

And what has escaped many is the tremendous scope and urgency of what we're dealing with. Already 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autism, and the number is escalating at an alarming rate. An analysis of the U.S. Department of Education special education data revealed that the number of students with a diagnosis of autism has increased more than 500 percent since 1993, and by 2014 the number is expected to increase 1800 percent.

We cannot afford to wait to address the needs of these children and others with special needs. That is why I am proposing a new grant program for institutions of higher education working to better prepare general education teachers for success in helping students with disabilities. Institutions would partner with high-need local education agencies to place qualified teacher candidates into the areas that need the most help.

The Teach to Reach grants will give our teachers the tools to properly engage students with disabilities. Truly engaging the students not only improves the quality of learning for special needs students but for everyone in the classroom. These grants will provide just the sort of preparation that is needed. Teacher candidates will learn how to use Response to Intervention, a scientifically based intervention strategy that allows a teacher to pinpoint the specific skills students need in order to progress. They will train in positive behavioral support strategies that will enable them to manage and improve challenging behaviors in the classroom and also learn how to work with their special education and related colleagues to develop and implement individualized educational programs so that students with disabilities will have their diverse needs met.

In classroom after classroom across the Nation, these grants can make the difference between students trapped by misunderstanding and teachers reaching their students and helping them unlock their potential to succeed in school and excel in life.

This program is endorsed by the NEA, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education, and many organizations that advocate for the education of students with disabilities.

I strongly encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment so that we may empower our Nation's teachers to reach all of our children.

Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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