A press release from the Virginia Coalition for Students with Disabilities said the bill would severely limit parental involvement in the education of children with disabilities and eliminate public participation in the development of Virginia's special education regulations while allowing schools to assume parental rights regarding the identification, placement, and education of students with disabilities. The most critical protections that would be eliminated under H.B. 1001 are Virginia's long-standing requirements for parental participation and consent.
Schools can still go through a process to overrule the parent.
Eliminating the parental consent requirements would shift responsibility for the child away from the parent to the school. It is essential that we retain the parents rights to work together with the schools on behalf of the children. IDEA was reauthorized in 1997 and federal regulations were published in March 1999. The federal regulations set minimal federal requirements for implementing the law and leave many aspects of special education up to state regulation and local school policy. A 60-day comment period is currently underway on the regulations, with hearings scheduled in various locations on February 28, 2000.