Will Illinois serve students or just "make life easier for
school districts"?
It is now clear that the Governor's desire to reduce education
regulations includes slashing special education rules, and
that the Governor wants to INCREASE class size and case
load for special education while the Governor proclaims that
"smaller classes mean more individual attention for students."
The new proposed Part 226 special education rules (last
week the State Board of Education was told that some school
districts are already using the new proposed rules to try to
impose larger classes) allow 40% of a general education class
to be students with disabilities and ELIMINATES for the 2007-
2008 school year ALL case load limits on special education
teachers by DELETING the following: "case load...includes each
student who receives direct or indirect service, such as
consultation service".
For the 2008-2009 school year, ISBE wants to "eliminate the
categorical basis for class size" so students with all types of
disability could be in the same class and since the class size
limits are only for each "class period", if a special ed teacher
teaches 6 class periods each day, that teacher could be teaching
90 students with tremendously varying disabilities each day.
The Governor needs to hear from you and everyone you know.
You can call the Governor at 217-782-6830 or 312-814-2121.
You can e-mail the Governor at . You
might want to say, "I oppose the proposed special education
rules. Why hasn't the Governor stopped them?"
If you're told that "The Governor has nothing to do with special
education rules", or that "They are just proposals going out
for public comment; are you opposed to getting public comment?",
you can say, "The Governor controls the State Board of Education.
It does what he wants it to do. Why does the Governor want to
eliminate 50 pages of critical special education rules AND
increase class sizes for special education and increase the number
of students each special education teacher serves?"
If you're told, "The Governor doesn't want to do that", you can say
"Then will the Governor ask the State Board of Education
to withdraw the proposed Part 226 Special Education Rules at
their meeting on March 15th?"
Remember this is an election year and the Governor will be
opposed in the March 21 Democratic primary as well as in the Fall.
[Please send me an e-mail after you call the Governor's Office
with a summary of what they said: ]
It will take a massive protest from teachers and parents
directly to the Governor to get the State Board of Education
to withdraw the proposed changes to Part 226, the Illinois
rules for special education.
The Governor's Office stated last Thursday that when the Governor
appointed new members to ISBE in 2004 he expected them to
see "how the rules could be changed to make life easier for
school districts."
"As part of this effort, the State Board has eliminated over 500
pages of rules and numerous unnecessary regulatory burdens."
www.ourchildrenleftbehind.com