FOR RELEASE: June 8, 2005

Speaker sometimes deviates from text.

Thank you, John Hager, for that kind introduction. It's been a real pleasure having John at the Department. I laugh at his jokes, and he tries his best to laugh at mine. In seriousness, John, I am grateful for your devotion and leadership. Let me also thank Troy Justesen for his leadership at the Office of Special Education Programs and for helping to organize this conference.

And most importantly, let me thank all of you for your hard work on behalf of our schools and our children with disabilities. If given the right kind of attention and a quality education, we know every child can learn. As a nation, we made that ideal our mission with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. And we are relying on folks like you to give states, districts, and schools the help they need to make it happen.

I like to think of you as the middlemen between policymakers and schools. Without you, the process breaks down. You take policy and show how it can translate into real results in the classroom. And results are what we are all about. Teachers expect to achieve them. And parents expect to see them for their children.

We've all heard a few voices recently saying that it's just not possible to achieve results for all students. It reminds me of the same thinking that led people to once assume that children with disabilities were incapable of being educated. Thankfully, a lot has changed since many children with disabilities were forced to live behind institutional walls. Now we must also take down the barriers that have confined these students to a world of lower expectations.

The No Child Left Behind Act is raising the bar for all of our students. And we can already see what a difference it is making. Across the country, test scores are rising, and the achievement gap is closing. And in states like Massachusetts, Oregon, and North Carolina students with disabilities are making real progress in reading and math.

For the first time ever, No Child Left Behind has focused our attention on making sure these students achieve results in the classroom. We know it's possible. It's why we are all here today. The key is making a commitment to using methods and strategies that are proven to work.

Over the last few decades, we've come a long way in closing the gap between special education and general education. As recently as my school days (and yes, that still passes for recently!!), many states still had laws excluding students with disabilities from public schools. As a result, in 1970, our schools only educated one in five students with disabilities.

That all began to change 30 years ago when Congress passed the first law guaranteeing all children with disabilities a free and appropriate education. The law would become known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). More than two decades after Brown v. Board of Education opened the schoolhouse to students of all races, this law promised students with disabilities a seat in the classroom.

But like Brown, it didn't go far enough. For millions of students, a seat in the classroom didn't translate into a chance to achieve and live the American dream.

President Bush came to office in 2001 determined to guarantee all students not just an education but a quality education. He rallied representatives from both sides of the political aisle to come together to pass the No Child Left Behind Act. The law says all children, including children with disabilities, can achieve high standards in school. And it says we must measure student progress each year to make sure they all do.

That starts with annually assessing every student in reading and math and breaking down the results into student groups like children with disabilities and those who are economically disadvantaged. This data provides parents and educators with a valuable tool. It shows which students need extra help and where. When we assess every student, we make sure every child counts. I like to say, "What gets measured gets done."

And the president has made sure states have the resources to get the job done. Including the president's 2006 budget proposal, this administration has increased funding for special education grants to states by 75 percent since 2001. We have tied these unprecedented resources to an expectation for results.

When President Bush and Congress set out to reauthorize the IDEA legislation in 2004, they made sure it called for states to set measurable targets for progress among students with disabilities. It's the first law to hold schools accountable for making sure students with disabilities achieve high standards. The days when we looked past the underachievement of these students are over.

In other words, No Child Left Behind and the new IDEA have not only removed the final barrier separating special education from general education, they have put the needs of students with disabilities front and center. Special education is no longer a peripheral issue. It's central to the success of any school.

No Child Left Behind and IDEA are working in concert together. And the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services are collaborating and linking their programs together so that all teachers—classroom teachers and special educators—establish a partnership and a common language about how best to assess and meet the needs of their students.

At the same time, we also know that not all children learn the same way. And we want to give states the flexibility to take these differences into account. As you know, No Child Left Behind already allows students with significant cognitive disabilities—around 1 percent of all students—to take alternate assessments.

Now, new scientific research has shown that some students with academic disabilities—around 2 percent of all students—can make real progress toward grade level achievement given more time and improved instruction. We want to let these students take alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards, as long as states work to improve their special education instruction and assessment.

When we developed this new policy, our top priority was improving instruction for students with disabilities. So we worked with the best education researchers in the country—brilliant minds like my good friend, professor Jack Fletcher, from the University of Texas Health Science Center. It's good to see you here today.

This new approach will help give teachers and students the credit they deserve when they make progress. And it will help us hold schools accountable for making sure all students reach high standards.

We know all students can learn in school. I think of the story of Lee Alderman. He came to Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C. after transferring out of a private school in Northern Virginia. As a student with autism, he developed slowly early in life, but his mother never lost hope in his great potential. At Cardozo, Lee finally received the instruction he needed and thrived. A few years ago, he graduated as valedictorian and went on to college with a full academic scholarship. His story testifies to what students with disabilities can accomplish when we give them the proper instruction.

We need your assistance instituting this new policy for students with certain academic disabilities. States and schools will need help identifying which students fit this description. They also will need help designing alternate assessments for them. That's why the Department is directing $14 million in immediate support to provide states and schools with the technical assistance they need.

Of course, we must be careful to balance this new flexibility with safeguards to ensure that all of our students, including those students with disabilities, receive the most challenging education possible. That's why only states that show a real commitment to leaving no child behind will qualify for this new flexibility.

It's all part of a new common sense approach to implementing No Child Left Behind that I like to call "Raising Achievement: A New Path for No Child Left Behind." Here's the way it works. States that follow the bright-line principles of the law and demonstrate real results will be eligible for new tools to help them meet the law's ultimate goal of getting every child to grade level by 2014. In other words, if states are closing the achievement gap and meeting proficiency targets, they can qualify for additional flexibility.

Of course, the only way to show progress is to keep counting every student, including students with disabilities, in accountability decisions. That's why we are insisting that states continue to assess every student and break down the data by subgroups. Accountability and assessment are the linchpins of this law. Without measurement, there can be no accountability for results. And without accountability, children will fall behind and slip through the cracks.

In deciding who gets this new flexibility, we will be focusing on the big picture and asking states questions like:

• Are more children reading by the end of the third grade?
• Are graduation rates rising?
• Is there a strong plan in place to make sure all children, including children with disabilities, are on grade level by 2014?

In short, we'll let the results speak for themselves. When we passed No Child Left Behind, we wanted to ensure that every child learned to read and do math on grade level. If states can show that students are making progress toward this overarching goal, we'll give them the necessary room to keep doing what works. It's the results that matter. And states are going to need your help to achieve them.

For the first time ever, we have a law that recognizes that children with disabilities are still children first. No Child Left Behind doesn't just call for us to ensure these students have a seat in the classroom. It goes a step further. It calls for us to ensure they learn and achieve high standards, just like all their peers. It places children with disabilities at the front of the battle to improve our education system.

Over the last few years, researchers have made a lot of advances on how we can help these students get ahead in school. But research is only as good as its implementation. And we have to make sure this information gets to the classroom where it can help students. That's why the work of the Office of Special Education Programs is so crucial to the success of IDEA and No Child Left Behind.

When we passed No Child Left Behind, we made a great promise to our children. It's a promise we must keep. This new flexibility will help states that are serious about leaving no child behind achieve the law's full potential.

We know all students can make progress in school. The challenge is providing them with the right course of instruction. I know many of you have been working in this area for a long time, and I have great confidence that you are up to the task. With your help, we will leave no child behind.

Thank you.

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