Special Education Rules

It has been a few months since the Illinois General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) rejected the new rules for special education that had been put forth by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) last spring. These new rules would have made many changes in how special education classes were organized and staffed with the potential for adding additional costs by requiring additional teachers in many districts. While the new rules were clearly the responsibility of ISBE, I felt that they were premature since the federal government has not issued guidelines and rules for the implementation of the re-authorized IDEA legislation. I felt that we should wait for federal guidance rather than create state level rules and be forced to modify them if they did not match the federal rules. It was a surprise that JCAR rejected the proposed rules and sent them back to ISBE. Apparently, a great deal of pressure was exerted by the IEA and IFT in rejecting the new rules.

Nothing has been reported about the status of the proposed rules since before the winter break. Although the proposed rules were not to my liking, they were developed over a period of time through the efforts of many people throughout the state. The danger now is that if the rules are not presented soon, all will be lost and the entire process will have to begin again. If the rules are not passed or reviewed within180 days, the rules become invalid. I hope that the teachers’ unions and ISBE can work together to move the special education rules forward so that the entire process is not forced to be repeated.