The deadline to submit comments to the US Dept of Education on the 2004 IDEA regulations was September 6, 2005. The subject line has to contain "IDEA-Part B" and the email address is: IDEAComments@ed.gov.

According to many advocacy organizations, the new regulations diminish the responsibilities of school systems and families' rights to be included in all decision making and access to due process. I hope you had an opportunity to take a moment to add your voice to those being raised in support of families and children's rights to opportunities and support in our schools.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) of the U.S. Department of Education, has a series of topic briefs regarding the IDEA Improvement Act of 2004
http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/idea2004.html

It is doubtful that your children's teaching staff, school principals or school districts will be comfortably familiar with the changes discussed in these briefs until several years have passed, so please share with them any information that encourages or supports your child at school.

Remember, families of children with special needs created wonderful programs for their sons and daughters when there were few if any laws concerning people with developmental disabilities or delays. They created the first wave of advocacy within their communities, working with neighbors, businesses, the faith community, school staff, and their own families. We should be able to move forward from here if they moved forward from where they started out. Our children deserve no less.

There are established advocacy organizations throughout the USA and around the world that were started by people who were only trying to create a difference in the lives of a few individuals who they believed should have a voice and an opportunity. Thousands more people with disabilities and their families, friends and advocates created small differences that we may never hear about but changed their communities forever.