I 
107TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5352
To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to develop and 
implement strategies to reduce the number of children who have, or 
who are at risk of developing, emotional disturbances that require the 
provision of special education and related services under that Act. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 9, 2002
Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island (for himself, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. MARKEY, 
Mr. PAYNE, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. OWENS, and Mr. LIPINSKI) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Edu-
cation and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 
to develop and implement strategies to reduce the num-
ber of children who have, or who are at risk of devel-
oping, emotional disturbances that require the provision 
of special education and related services under that Act.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Reducing Special Education Through Prevention Act’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABIL-
ITIES EDUCATION ACT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part D of the Individuals with 
Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1451 et seq.) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘Subpart 3—Grants To Improve School-Based Early 
Intervention Services for Children With Emo-
tional Disturbances 
‘‘SEC. 691. FINDINGS; PURPOSE. 
‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
‘‘(1) During 2002–2001 approximately 472,932 
children between the ages of 6 and 21 who were re-
ceiving special education and related services were 
identified as having emotional disturbances—a 21.8 
percent increase from the number of such children 
so identified during 1990–1991. These children with 
emotional disturbances represent 7.7 percent of the 
total number of children with disabilities and ap-
proximately 1 percent of the general population of 
the United States. 
‘‘(2) It is estimated that up to 19 percent of 
the total number of students in elementary and sec-
ondary schools in the United States exhibit symp-
toms of emotional disturbance or symptoms of other 
mental health conditions, but only 1 percent of such 
students are properly identified as such and receive
necessary services. These students fail more classes, 
miss more days of school, have lower grades, are 
more frequently retained at the same grade level for 
more than 1 school year, drop out from school more 
frequently, and have lower graduation rates than do 
other students with disabilities. 
‘‘(3) At the Conference on Children’s Mental 
Health in September 2000, the Surgeon General 
stated that ‘[c]hildren and families are suffering be-
cause of missed opportunities for prevention and 
early identification [of children with emotional dis-
turbances], fragmented services, and low priorities 
for resources’. 
‘‘(4) Goal Number 3 of the Conference on Chil-
dren’s Mental Health Report is to improve the as-
sessment and recognition of the mental health needs 
of children, including through the following actions: 
‘‘(A) Encourage early identification of 
mental health needs in existing preschool, 
childcare, education, health, welfare, juvenile 
justice, and substance abuse treatment systems. 
‘‘(B) Promote cost-effective, proactive sys-
tems of behavior support at the school level. 
These systems of behavior support should em-
phasize universal, primary prevention methods
that recognize the unique differences of all chil-
dren and youth, but should include selective in-
dividual student support for those students with 
more intense and long-term needs. 
‘‘(5) Improving outcomes for children with emo-
tional disturbances depends not only on improving 
the learning opportunities of such children, but also 
on promoting effective coordination among schools, 
families, and systems that provide services for such 
children, such as the social services, health, mental 
health, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems. 
Positive results of such coordination include in-
creased retention in school, improved educational 
outcomes, and the cognitive, emotional, and behav-
ioral development of such children. 
‘‘(6) Increased academic performance, improved 
attendance, increased engagement in academic ac-
tivities, and fewer disruptions to the learning envi-
ronment are a few of the many positive outcomes 
documented when systems that provide services for 
children with emotional disturbances include a con-
tinuum of services such as prevention, early inter-
vention at the first indication of a mental health 
problem or behavioral difficulty of a child, and treat-
ment of severe and chronic mental health problems.