Hawaii is among the group of states that is now being scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Education for failure to comply with a federal law that’s designed to support students with disabilities.
The number of states in compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has dropped from 41 to 18, in large part because the federal government has implemented a new grading system announced Tuesday that looks at student performance on top of administrative procedures. IDEA is broken up into two sections: one that applies to children ages three through 21, and one that applies to babies and toddlers.
Hawaii has been downgraded to the “Needs Assistance” category for both sections for this year, meaning that it faces new requirements to bring it up to compliance next year, and potentially a loss in funding. Hawaii formerly fell in the “Meets Requirements” category for the first part, though it was also considered out of compliance for the younger children then.
Now, the USDOE will look at several metrics gauging student performance, including test scores and achievement gaps. Before, it focused its rankings solely on whether states were complying with administrative protocol, adhering to procedural deadlines and the like.
“Protecting the rights of children with disabilities and their families is a key responsibility of State educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs), but it is not sufficient if children are not attaining the knowledge and skills necessary to accomplish the ideals of IDEA: equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency,” says the USDOE memo.
The IDEA program costs $11.5 billion annually and is largely distributed according to the number of special-needs students per state.
