By Priscilla Pardini

Following is Part 1 of a 2-part series on special education, outlining the major issues as Congress takes up debate of the IDEA. Part 2, focusing on issues of race and special education, will be in the Summer issue.

Ask special education teachers about the upcoming reauthorization of the federal law governing special education - known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act - and more often than not their eyes glaze over.

No wonder. From their perspective, IDEA is already laden with complex regulations and innumerable procedural requirements shaped largely by policymakers with little understanding of classroom realities. Teachers often wonder whether another revision of the law is likely to have much bearing on their day-to-day teaching of the roughly 6 million students classified as needing special education services.

Nonetheless, the federal reauthorization of IDEA is shaping up as the educational battle of the year. The major issue: whether Congress will fulfill its 27-year-old pledge to fund 40 percent of the additional costs of educating students with special needs in the United States, or whether the undeniable problems in special education will be used as a rationale to dismantle the programs and promises of IDEA.

David Egnor, senior director of public policy for the Council for Exceptional Children, said that without adequate funding, Congress can't ever expect to get true compliance with the law, no matter what it requires. "You get what I call symbols and ceremonies of compliance: more paperwork and meetings. You know you're not serving kids as well as you should be, so you spend all your time doing paperwork to cover yourself in case you get sued." (The council is the nation's largest professional organization committed to improving educational outcomes for individuals with disabilities.)