ED Modifying IDEA Monitoring To Focus On Student Achievement

Education Week (3/16, Shah) reports that ED officials say that they plan to change the department's policies regarding monitoring state compliance with IDEA to take "into account what or how much students with disabilities are actually learning. ... 'For too long, we've been a compliance-driven bureaucracy when it comes to educating students with disabilities,' US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement this month. 'We have to expect the very best from our students-and tell the truth about student performance-so that we can give all students the supports and services they need.'" Annual visits to states will be suspended during the next year as ED officials craft a new "results-driven" monitoring system.