Connecticut’s House Bill 7277 and the identical Senate Bill 1561 were just barely voted out of the Select Committee on Special Education (the vote was only 8 in favor to 7 opposed). But the bills are out, and we need to act now!
Please email and/or call your state representative and your state senator.
Don’t know what the issues are? See example letter below.
Don’t know who your legislators are? Click here. When you fill out your address, the linked page will pull up the names of your state and federal legislators. Click on the state legislator’s title, and this will either create an email or direct you to the page where you can submit your comments. (No need to email your federal legislators, as they have no say on state law.)
In addition to sending your own email, please also ask three (or four or fifty) friends, family members, or random passersby to also submit emails asking their state legislators to OPPOSE Special Education bills HB 7277 and SB 1561. ALL VOICES ARE NEEDED.
This is an example letter. Feel free to revise. Add a personal story. Write whatever you would like.
Dear Representative (last name):
I live in your district and am asking you to please OPPOSE Special Education bills HB 7277 and SB 1561, as these identical bills, if passed, will harm thousands of children with disabilities. The harms in the bills include but are not limited to:
A. The bills make it nearly impossible for parents to obtain reimbursement when they place their child in a needed private special education school (especially see “burden of proof” language). Parents remove students to private special education schools usually out of desperation–when districts unreasonably deny needed services. Very often, the child has been suffering for years at this point. What is the child-based reason for making it nearly impossible for parents to seek reimbursement for a necessary unilateral private placement? There is none.
B. The bills remove “service implementer” from the IEP, This would not result in any paperwork reduction but would simply remove school accountability and transparency regarding who is providing special education services to the child. What is the child-based reason for making the IEP less transparent and less accountable for districts? There is none.
C. The bills rush to place state-imposed one-size-fits-all caps on special education school tuition without first carefully assessing existing expenditures and services. Also shocking, the legislation fails to provide for any input from families whose children attend those programs. What is the child-based reason for trying to set rates so low that needed private special education schools could go out of business? There is none.
D. The bills intend to allocate public money to provide grants to individuals and districts without requiring that the grants are used only on training and program development that is evidence-based, as demonstrated through published, peer-reviewed research. What is the child-based reason for likely wasting taxpayer dollars on what is often ineffective training and programming? There is none.
E. The bills make it more challenging for a child to access approved private special education schools when the public school cannot meet the student’s needs in a timely way. Please ask yourself, what is the child-based reason for this?
If you have any questions, please email me at (email address) or call me at (phone number).
Sincerely,
(name)
