Lex Frieden, Chairperson
January 2006

The Bulletin, which is free of charge and at NCD’s award-winning Web site (www.ncd.gov), brings you the latest issues and news affecting people with disabilities. To subscribe to the new NCD listserv, go to http://listserv.access.gpo.gov, click on Online mailing list archives, select NCD-NEWS-L, click on Join or leave the list, then complete the short subscription form. Please send your editorial comments to Bulletin editor Mark S. Quigley (mquigley@ncd.gov).

NCD Research Opportunities

On January 6, NCD published a prerelease notice on Grants.gov (www.grants.gov) for a National Disability Performance Indicators and Data study.

NCD’s primary interest in undertaking this research is to ensure that the Federal Government is in a position to effectively monitor and eventually evaluate programs and supports for people with disabilities, but not duplicate other work. A secondary interest is improvement of performance reporting for the Federal Government’s major social programs for Americans with disabilities and their families. One of the chief mechanisms has been the use of indicator systems. Few of this nation’s national indicator systems, however, are populated with meaningful (outcome) data related to people with disabilities. Additionally, the majority of indicator systems do not address the whole of people’s lives but, rather, are domain-specific (e.g., health). In an effort to identify valid federal indicators and data and to describe the status of the U.S. population of Americans with disabilities, NCD will conduct research that results in a product titled “Americans with Disabilities: Key Indicators of Quality Lives.”

The full announcement will be available on February 6 on the NCD Web site at http://www.ncd.gov/resources_opportunities.htm.

On January 30, NCD published a prerelease notice on Grants.gov for an Educational Outcomes for Students with Disabilities study.

As a follow-up to its 2004 paper Improving Educational Outcomes for Students with Disabilities(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2004/educationoutcomes.htm), NCD will conduct a formal evaluation of the implementation of both the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Thanks to IDEA and its push for increased access to education for students with disabilities, and NCLBA, with its push for improved student outcomes, educators across the United States are reexamining their practices to find ways to close the achievement gaps between groups of students. Students with disabilities are a focus of this attention, as schools and states labor to improve their academic outcomes. Policymakers are studying both the reauthorization of IDEA and the ongoing implementation of NCLBA to determine the most effective means for serving students with disabilities. Ample time has passed since passage of NCLBA and the reauthorization of IDEA for this research to be undertaken.

The full announcement will be available on February 28 on the NCD Web site at http://www.ncd.gov/resources_opportunities.htm.

If you have difficulty accessing either announcement electronically, please contact Martin Gould, Ed.D., at 202-272-2112 or mgould@ncd.gov.

Katrina Follow-up

On January 7, a guest column by NCD chairperson Lex Frieden appeared in The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi) titled “Involve people with disabilities in relief plans: Let’s learn from our mistakes before the next disaster strikes.” The entire column can be found at http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/inthenews/frieden_01-07-06.htm.

The January 2006 issue of New Mobilitymagazine names Lex Frieden its Person of the Year. The full story, titled “Lex Frieden: Prepared for Disaster,” can be found at http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/inthenews/frieden_01-07-06.htm.

Supreme Court Update

On January 10, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a Georgia prisoner with a disability could sue the state for not accommodating his disability. The cases were United States v. Georgia, et al. (04-1203) and Goodman v. Georgia, et al. (04-1236). See NCD's position paper at http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/goodman.htm.

On January 17, the Supreme Court upheld Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law in Gonzalez v. Oregon (04-623). NCD's statement opposing legalization of assisted suicide can be found at http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/assisted_suicide.htm.

Legislative Update

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is the nation's major program to provide comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services to help people with disabilities achieve employment goals and full integration into society. Authorization of appropriations for the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 expired at the end of FY 2003. However, under provisions of the Rehabilitation Act, Title I of the act was automatically extended for one additional year through FY 2004. Other programs under the act were extended for one year through FY 2004 under provisions of the General Education Provisions Act. For FY 2005 and FY 2006, Congress has continued funding for the act through appropriations legislation for the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, and related agencies.

During the 108th Congress, both the House and Senate approved legislation to reauthorize the act through FY 2009, but no final action was taken. In the 109th Congress, H.R. 27, passed by the House on March 25, 2005, and S. 1021, reported by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, would extend authorization of appropriations for the act through FY 2011. The Rehabilitation Act amendments are part of bills that would also reauthorize programs authorized by the Workforce Investment Act. NCD is authorized under the Rehabilitation Act.

On January 25, 2006, S.2185, the IDEA Full Funding Act, was introduced in the U.S. Senate. This legislation amends part B of IDEA to provide full federal funding of such part. S. 2185 would fully fund IDEA in five years through mandatory annual phased-in spending increases, until federal funding reaches $26.1 billion in FY 2011.

The bill was referred to the Senate HELP Committee.

International Update

The Seventh Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities is meeting from January 16 to February 3, 2006, at the United Nations headquarters in New York. NCD is providing informational input to the seventh Ad Hoc Committee meeting via a report drafted from the proceedings of a symposium NCD cosponsored with Mental Disability Rights International and American University. The symposium brought stakeholders up-to-date on the status of the current negotiations on monitoring of deliberations on the United Nations Convention and brought together human rights and disability experts to discuss innovative models for monitoring the implementation of the convention. The symposium also looked at national level components of monitoring. The report can be found at http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/symposium.htm.

Quarterly Meeting

NCD will conduct its next quarterly meeting on March 13-14, 2006, from 9:00 a.m until 5:00 p.m. EDT, at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, 1001 West Buena Vista Drive, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. This meeting is open to the public and free of charge.

NCD to Purge Mailing Lists

In an effort to be more efficient and cost-effective, NCD will purge the NCD Bulletin mailing list that is sent via U.S. mail and start anew. As you may be aware, the snail-mail version arrives weeks after it is published, which can be frustrating. A more efficient way to receive the newsletter and other NCD news is via its listserv. Although NCD will not discontinue the snail-mail version at this time, we are encouraging more readers to sign up for the electronic (and instant) version. To do so, please go to http://listserv.access.gpo.gov, click on "Online mailing list archives," select "NCD-NEWS-L," click on "Join or leave the list," then complete the short subscription form. If you prefer the hard copy of the newsletter, please send your request to NCD Bulletin, 1331 F Street, NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20004.

NCD will also purge its reports mailing list and start fresh. If you would like to receive or continue receiving NCD reports via U.S. mail, please send your request to NCD Reports, 1331 F Street, NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20004. NCD reports are always available in HTML and PDF at http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/publications.htm.