LD Summit: Important Issues for the Field of Learning Disabilities

Abstract. This article summarizes nine White Papers that were commissioned by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and presented at the Learning Disabilities Summit -- Building a Foundation for the Future, August 2001. The purpose of the article is to inform the membership of the Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) of the issues identified by authors of the White Papers that promise to influence research, policy, and practice. ********** On August 27 and 28, 2001, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education held a Learning Disabilities (LD) Summit in Washington, DC. Secretary Rod Paige addressed more than 200 educators, researchers, advocates, and policy makers during the plenary session. Dr. Paige emphasized the importance of developing a "genuine science" for dealing with learning disabilities and stated that IDEA reauthorization will be guided by four principles: accountability for results, local control and flexibility, expanded parent options, and linking research-based strategies to the classroom. Recently appointed Assistant Secretary Robert Pasternak noted that "the [Bush] administration has a commitment to this review [of IDEA] to determine whether changes are needed to evaluate children diagnosed with learning disabilities." The LD Summit -- Building a Foundation for the Future was part of the national LD Initiative undertaken by OSEP. During the mid-nineties, the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (1) (NJCLD) requested that OSEP examine federal regulations relating to identification of children and adolescents with LD. With reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act imminent, OSEP deferred examining (nonstatutory) LD identification procedures. In an effort to fulfill its commitment to NJCLD's request, OSEP began its national LD Initiative in spring of 2000 after deciding that the first step was to clearly articulate the current LD research base. The following summer, OSEP convened a work group of 21 researchers, service providers, policy makers, and parents to identify White Paper topics, paper authors, and paper respondents. This work resulted in the development of nine White Papers and more than 30 response papers, which were presented by the authors during the 2001 summit. This information will help guide policy makers during the reauthorization of IDEA '97 to ensure that students with LD are properly identified and provided with a free appropriate education. With the call for full funding of IDEA, LD identification promises to be a big issue during the reauthorization process as this disability category currently accounts for more than half of all students served by special education. In addition, there have been calls by some to overhaul special education and to radically rethink how we identify and serve students with disabilities. For example, consider these statements made by the editors of the recently published Fordham Foundation's Rethinking Special Education for a New Century: Putting it bluntly, special education is broken for too many children. Think of it as "program at risk." Special education now has far too many categories -- particularly in the "LD' area -- and is too vague about which children need this assistance. Rather than today's "one-size-fits-all" IDEA mandates and procedures, policymakers should consider creating two or possibly three categories of students within the special needs population. Learning disabilities pose issues of their own. Exactly what gives students with specific learning problems an entitlement to greater education resources than their peers who simply are slow learners and/or struggling for other reasons? (Finn, Rotherham, & Hokanson, 2001, pp. 336-345) It is clear that special education, and the learning disabilities field in particular, faces significant challenges as reauthorization of IDEA 97 begins next year. …