Media Advisory

NCD #99-276
December 8, 1999
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004
202-272-2074 TTY
mquigley@ncd.gov

National Council on Disability to Conduct News Conference on Enforcement and Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

WASHINGTON--The National Council on Disability (NCD) will conduct a news conference to highlight the release of its report Back to School on Civil Rights on Tuesday, January 25, 2000, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 902 Senate Hart Office Building, Second Street and Constitution Avenue, NE, Washington, DC.

Back to School on Civil Rights is the second in NCD's "Unequal Protection Under Law" series of independent analyses of federal civil rights enforcement for Americans with disabilities. The premise of the enforcement of IDEA is that all children with disabilities have a federally protected civil right to have a free appropriate education that meets their schooling and related service needs in the least restrictive environment. This report assesses nearly two and a half decades of federal enforcement of IDEA and offers recommendations to the President and Congress for how IDEA can better be enforced.

NCD is an independent federal agency currently coordinating a multi-year study for the President and Congress on the implementation and enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws. The findings in Back to School on Civil Rights are significant and the recommendations, far reaching.