American Youth Policy Forum and the Center on Education Policy
2002
The American Youth Policy Forum has teamed up with the Center on Education Policy to produce this review of the nation's experience with "special" education in the quarter century since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted. (It had a different name then.) In 64 pages, it applauds IDEA for many gains (e.g. effecting access to public education for disabled youngsters and putting into place "a solid infrastructure" for educating those kids). It also says the program now needs considerable reform. Some of its observations parallel those in last year's Fordham-Progressive Policy Institute volume on IDEA (which you can find at www.edexcellence.net), notably the conclusion that special ed policy should now "look beyond ensuring access...and focus on improving educational quality and results" for disabled youngsters. As Washington begins to shift its attention from E.S.E.A. to I.D.E.A.-the President's commission on special education recently held its first meeting-this is a timely contribution to what is apt to be a very important, possibly even historic, policy sequence. You can find it on the web at http://www.ctredpol.org/specialeducation/.
