Help Parents Recover Expert Witness Fees and Level the Playing Field!
CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE ON THURSDAY JULY 9 AND ASK THEM TO COSPONSOR THE IDEA FAIRNESS RESTORATION ACT, H.R. 2740!
Dial 202-224-3121 (TTY 202-225-1904) and ask for your Representative. See below for instructions on how to identify your Representative. We are asking everyone to do this; it is important for your Congressional Representatives to hear directly from you!
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Few parents can afford the thousands of dollars needed to pay for expert testimony that is necessary to prevail in IDEA due process hearings and litigation. But school districts can use tax dollars to employ and pay for psychologists and o the r technical experts. Parents have fewer resources and yet must bear a greater financial burden. The IDEA Fairness Restoration Act, H.R. 2740, is necessary to allow parents to recover the ir expert witness fees. It will restore Congress original intent. This bipartisan bill, introduced by Congressman Chris Van Hollen ( Maryland ) and Pete Sessions ( Texas ), will help level the playing field and make the right to due process meaningful for parents across America .
Over 200 organizations support the bill, including the Arc, the Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates, Inc. (COPAA), Easter Seals, National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC), National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), LDA, DREDF, TASH, CHADD, Center for Law and Education, Epilepsy Foundation, Autism Society of America, United Cerebral Palsy, Our Children Left Behind, and many o the rs. In addition, more than 2,100 families, advocates, attorneys, friends, colleagues, and o the rs have signed a petition asking Congress to pass the bill. Both the organizational and individual sign-ons will be posted on COPAAs webpage shortly,
www.copaa.org
.
KEY POINTS TO SHARE WITH YOUR CONGRESSMANS OFFICE:
Why it's important to cosponsor the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act (H.R. 2740).
The IDEA Fairness Restoration Act will override the Supreme Court's decision in
Arlington Central School District v. Murphy (2006) and allow parents who prevail in due process or litigation to be reimbursed for the ir expert witness fees. When prevailing parents cannot recover expert costs, the playing field is nei the r level nor fair, and children are denied a free appropriate public education and o the r fundamental IDEA rights.
- Hiring qualified medical, technical, and o the r expert witnesses can cost many thousands of dollars. Few parents can afford this high cost, putting due process out of reach for most parents, who already struggle to afford what the ir children with disabilities need.
- School districts use tax dollars to pay for psychologists and o the r paid experts. Parents have fewer resources and yet must bear a greater financial burden. Approximately 36% of children with disabilities live in families earning less than $25,000 a year; over 2/3 earn less than $50,000 a year.
- Congress intended for parents to recover the ir expert witness fees in the Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986. Allowing parents to recoup the ir expert fees simply restores Congress' original intent.
- If due process is not affordable, the IEP process becomes even more one-sided and unfair. School personnel control the IEP process and often vastly outnumber parents. When the right to due process is meaningful, it helps ensure that school districts provide an appropriate education to children with disabilities.
- Most parents turn to due process and litigation only as a last resort. In 2003, the GAO reported that the re were only 5 hearings per 10,000 special education students. But when parents are forced into due process, the y should be able to afford expert witnesses, without which, winning a special education case is virtually impossible.
- For example, a Pennsylvania a mo the r was forced to go to due process to implement the Independent Educational Evaluation recommendations for her child with severe dyslexia and a written expression disorder. She had to borrow $1,400 to pay the evaluator to testify, and for two days of cross-examination by the school district. The parent prevailed and the child received the reading instruction he needed. Before the Supreme Courts Murphy decision, the mo the r could recover her expert fees; after Murphy, she would not.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CALLING YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE ON THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2009.
On Thursday, July 9, 2009, please call your Congressional Representatives and ask him/her to cosponsor H.R. 2740, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. Ask friends, colleagues, clients, and family members to call too. It will only take a few minutes.
Basic Instructions: Dial 202-224-3121 (TTY 202-225-1904). This is Congress main switchboard. Ask for your Congressperson's office. When you are connected, it helps to ask for the Aide who handles education or disability. If you get voicemail, please let a message. Tell the m you are a constituent and would like the Congressperson to co-sponsor H.R. 2740, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. Use some of the talking points above.
You can also find direct dial numbers for your Representative, including local numbers (if long-distance is too costly), on your Representatives webpage at
http://www.house.gov
. We prefer that you call the Washington , D.C. number if you can.
How to Find Out Who Your Congressional Representative is: If you do not know who your Congressional Representative is, go to
http://www.house.gov and put your zip code into the box in the upper left corner. (You usually only need your five digit zip code.)
EVEN IF YOU ALREADY SIGNED COPAAs PETITION, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO CALL CONGRESS DIRECTLY ON JULY 9. We use the petition to show the breadth of support for the bill and will send it to the Congressional leadership, but you need to call your individual Congressional Representatives office directly on July 9.
PLEASE CALL INSTEAD OF USING EMAIL. Many calls will attract attention to our cause, and Congress needs to hear from us. But if it is impossible for you to call, the n please email through
http://www.house.gov/writerep
If you cannot call or use TTY because of a disability or o the r reason, we encourage you to contact Congress via email. But if it is possible for you to use the telephone or TTY, please make a call. Calls get more attention.
Please make a phone call on July 9, even if you've called or written Congress before. If you can't call on July 9, it's okay to call afterwards.