Both houses of the United States Congress voted to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 397 to 3 on November 17 and the U.S. Senate passed the bill by voice vote November 19. Now the approved legislation moves to the White House for the President to sign it into law. IDEA is a federal special education law which mandates states will provide services be provided to students with special need by their school systems and allocates funds to the states to support these services. The reauthorized IDEA will enable parents to change a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) without holding a formal IEP meeting and keep their children in the same program from birth until kindergarten, making the transition to school easier for children and their families.
The National Council on Disability (NCD) has scheduled two events to announce the release of reports containing NCD recommendations. On December 1, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. the NCD announced the release of "Righting the ADA." This report contains NCD's legislative proposal, entitled, "ADA Restoration Act" which details actions to be taken to restore the protections of the ADA that the NCD deems to have been restricted by several U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
On December 2 NCD will release its report Livable Communities for Adults with Disabilities at a Congressional briefing in room HC-8 of the U.S. Capitol Building. The briefing will highlight the key findings and recommendations from the report and a panel of experts will provide feedback on the report. The NCD is co-hosting the release of this report with the assistance of the House Bipartisan Disability Caucus and the House Livable Communities Caucus. The report articulates the elements of a livable community for adults with disabilities, highlights existing examples of livable communities that can serve as models, and describes how communities can develop and sustain their livability features.