News Release

NCD #03-409
April 15, 2003
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004
202-272-2074 TTY
mquigley@ncd.gov

National Council on Disability Advises Policy Makers and Education Leaders on School Vouchers for Students with Disabilities

WASHINGTON-The National Council on Disability (NCD) today challenged policy makers and education leaders to ensure that any development of school vouchers is based on the direct input of parents, positive results for students with disabilities, sound empirical research of its effectiveness as a policy option, and in accordance with applicable federal (and state) law and civil rights regulations.

The enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) codified the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under law for all children and youth with disabilities. It provides a free appropriate public education (FAPE) that meets their education and related services needs in the least restrictive environment. The implementation of IDEA has produced important improvements in the quality and effectiveness of the education received by more than six million children and youth with disabilities. In recent years, a vigorous debate has emerged on the use of educational vouchers to encourage greater choice to parents and students in public education service delivery. Policy makers have offered school choice and voucher proposals in the context of the reauthorization of IDEA. Yet, no comprehensive examination has been made of the general conditions that determine whether school vouchers are an effective educational instrument for students with disabilities.

NCD's paper, School Vouchers and Students with Disabilities (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/vouchers.html), addresses the applicability and/or efficacy of extending publicly funded school voucher options to students with disabilities served under IDEA. This paper focuses on vouchers that allow public education funds to be used by eligible participants to attend private schools and the impact of such programs on the education of students with disabilities. Other school choice options, such as charter and magnet schools, are discussed only as they compare to and differ from voucher programs.

NCD found:

1) IDEA rights, as a general rule, will not extend to children and youth with disabilities who participate in voucher programs. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act will still apply to the administration of the voucher program but not to most activities of the private school.

2) School choice and voucher options have expanded slowly over the past decade and established beachheads in several urban settings with mixed results from large-scale evaluative studies. Special education has been left out of the process for the most part, with the exception of the statewide Florida McKay Scholarship Program, which may not provide a working model for extending vouchers under reauthorized IDEA since it does not hold private schools of choice to the same accountability requirements to which public schools are held.

3) Because vouchers can only cover a portion of costs of special education over and above the cost of private school tuition in many cases, particularly for students with moderate, low-incidence and severe disabilities, such programs may benefit only the affluent who can afford to supplement vouchers to cover actual costs. Since school districts will lose students and a proportion of state funds due to transfers to private schools, it is possible that public schools will be left to serve only poor students with more significant disabilities, and at a reduced level of financial support.

4) The principle of school choice, and voucher programs in particular, have not been adequately shown to be internally consistent and mutually reinforcing with regard to the other three principles of IDEA reauthorization (accountability for results, increasing local flexibility, and a focus on what works) outlined by the U.S. Department of Education.

5) The type of structure, policies, and procedures that are incorporated into a voucher program profoundly affect the rights of students in that program, produce different legal issues, and may also produce significantly different outcomes for those in the program.

6) Since children receiving special education are general education students, choice provisions such as those detailed in the No Child Left Behind Act must also be extended to special education students. As the U.S. Department of Education has pointed out, the private schools of choice must be accessible and be able to implement the individualized education program of the previous school.

Based on NCD's analyses, the following guiding questions are recommended to policy makers for immediate consideration as they explore the issue of whether vouchers should be used for students with disabilities, particularly through the enactment of federal legislation.

1) Whether private schools accepting vouchers for students with disabilities should be held to the same standards of accountability and compliance with IDEA as public schools serving the same students?

2) Whether private schools accepting vouchers for students with disabilities should provide evidence that they meet and fully comply with the IDEA provisions for educating students in the least restrictive environment (LRE)?

3) Whether a proposed voucher act would ensure that parents of students under IDEA eligible to receive vouchers would be provided with sufficiently detailed information concerning school choice options addressed particularly to the need for specialized supports and services needed to assure FAPE for their child, to enable them to make a reasoned and informed choice?

4) Whether vouchers for students with disabilities should be funded at a level sufficient to cover private school tuition and excess educational costs for the least expensive private school within a reasonable transportation distance that can provide all necessary supports, services and accommodations required to provide a FAPE to such students in the LRE?

5) Whether school districts losing students with vouchers and/or schools accepting vouchers from students with disabilities should provide accessible transportation to and from school, and should be fully accessible environments for such students?

In addition to these guiding questions, NCD believes that the U.S. Department of Education should conduct scientific investigations of programs extending voucher options to students with disabilities.

NCD concludes that policy makers and education leaders have a major challenge ahead of them to ensure that any development of school vouchers is based on the direct input of parents, positive results for students with disabilities, sound empirical research of its effectiveness as a policy option, and in accordance with applicable federal (and state) law and civil rights regulations.