• The requirement to include short-term objectives in the IEP as a way to meet long-term, annual goals no longer exists for most children.
  
• Short-term objectives will be required only for those children taking alternate assessments aligned with alternate standards. Only children with the most significant cognitive disabilities can take alternate assessment according to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
  
• IDEA 2004 still requires a description of how progress toward meeting IEP goals will be measured.
  
  

IEP progress reports

• The child's progress toward meeting IEP goals must be reported, but the new bill eliminates the language "the extent to which the progress is sufficient to attain the goal by the end of the year."
  

Transition

• The process of planning a student's transition from high school to adult life now begins at age 16, instead of 14.
  
• Language requiring the school to include a statement of other agencies' responsibilities and linkages to other agencies is no longer part of the law.
  
  

IEP meetings

• IEP team members may be excused from attending meetings if their subject area is not being discussed.
  
• Team members may participate by alternate means, such as conference calls and videoconferencing. (Already included in Vermont's Special Education Regulations.)
  
• Parental consent is required before these actions can occur.
  
  

Multi-year IEPs

• Up to 15 states will be selected to pilot a program allowing local school districts the option, with parental consent, of offering a multi-year IEP, not to exceed three years.
  
• States participating in the pilot will not be required to follow the same requirement for annual IEPs, such as reporting progress, documenting accommodations and supplementary aids and services.
  
• Parents in participating steps must consent to the three-year IEP that will be reviewed at natural transition points by the IEP team.
  
  

Paperwork reduction

• Up to 15 states will be authorized to develop proposals to reduce paperwork and non-instructional time burdens that allow them to waive certain federal statutory and regulatory requirements.
  
• Participating states must still adhere to requirements related to civil rights and the right of a child to a free appropriate public education.
  
  

Transition from Part C

• Parents of children moving from the Family, Infant and Toddler Program (Part C) to preschool special education have the option of requesting that members of the child's Part C team participate in the development of the first IEP. (Already an option in Vermont.)
  
  

Children transferring between districts

• When a child moves to a new school district, IEP services must be comparable to those that were in effect before the child transferred.
  
• If the transfer is in the same state, IEP services must be in effect until the previous IEP is adopted or a new IEP is developed and carried out.
  
• In a new state, previous IEP services must be in effect until a new IEP is developed.
  
  

Due process

• States will be required to distribute the notice of procedural safeguards (parents' rights)
  

• upon an initial referral for a special education evaluation,
  
• when a parent requests an evaluation
  
• when a due process complaint has been filed
  
• at a parent's request.
  
• This notice will no longer be given to parents with the notice of an IEP meeting or when their child is reevaluated.
  
  

• Parents now have two years in which to exercises their due process rights after they knew or should have known that an IDEA violation occurred. (Already exists in Vermont Special Education Regulations.)
  
  
• Parents must participate in a mandatory resolution session before a due process hearing.

• Within 15 days of receiving a due process complaint, the school district will hold a meeting with the parents and relevant members of the IEP team.
  
• The school district has 30 days, from the time the complaint was made, to resolve the complaint to the parents' satisfaction before a due process hearing can occur.
  
• Reimbursement of attorney's fees will not be made for work related to the resolution session.
  
  

• Parent's attorneys may be responsible for paying the school's legal fees in a due process hearing or court if the reason for filing the complaint is determined to be frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation. Parents may also be responsible for school legal fees if their complaint was made for improper reasons.
  
  
• IDEA 2004 now requires specific qualifications for hearing officiers.
  
  

Discipline

• Students with disabilities who violate school code that may result in a removal from their current educational placement for move than 10 days, no longer have the right to "stay put" in their current educational placement pending an appeal.

• Previously the law only denied "stay put" to students with disabilities involved with drugs, weapons, or other dangerous behavior.
  
  

• The burden to prove that a child's misbehavior was a manifestation of (was caused by or had a direct relationship to) his or her disability has been shifted to parents.

• Language that required the IEP team to consider whether the child's ability to control or understand the impact and consequences of their behavior was related to the disability has been deleted.
  
• Schools are no longer required to consider whether the IEP was appropriate to addressing the child's behavior.
  
  

• In addition to behavior involving drugs and weapons, schools may now remove a student to an interim educational setting for up to 45 days for behavior determined to inflict serious bodily injury, such as causing risk of death, extreme physical pain, or long-term disfigurement.

• The hearing officer is no longer required to consider whether the school has presented significant evidence in making a determination to remove the child from the current placement.
  
• And, the hearing officer is not required to consider whether the school did anything to minimize the risk of harm, including the use of supplementary aids and services.
  
  

• The timeline for removal has been changed to 45 school days from 45 calendar days - nine instead of six weeks of school.
  
  
• Functional behavioral assessments and behavior plans are still required as part of the discipline provision.
  
  
  

The U.S. Department will be issuing regulations that incorporate the changes to the IDEA. At this time, it's unclear when these regulations will be put into place. The Vermont Department of Education will provide guidance to parents and schools regarding the changes to IDEA 2004.