INTRODUCTION (Broadcast Begins with brief video of kids in school.)

PRESIDENT CLINTON (Video, Signing Act): To the 5.8 million children whose futures are in the balance, we are saying we believe in you. We believe in your potential and we are going to do everything we can to help you develop. (Video ends)

(IDEAs that Work graphic)

SEC. RICHARD W. RILEY, U.S. Dept. of Education (Video): Good afternoon and welcome to the second IDEAs that Work teleconference that's coming to you live from Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. On behalf of all of us at the Department of Education, I'd like to thank you for tuning in today. As many of you know, the department issued several regulations to implement IDEA '97 last Friday. I'm very proud of the work that the department, and particularly Judy Heumann's staff, has done in working with all of you to develop these new regulations. Today's teleconference is another part of our effort to make sure that families and schools and teachers and administrators know how IDEA '97 can help them to improve results for disabled children.

Today we have six million disabled children in our schools, and a record number -- almost 46% between the ages 6 and 21 -- attended regular classes in school year '95-96. We still have parents who have to struggle every single day to protect their child's constitutional right to a free and appropriate public education. We have to do a better job listening to the concerns of educators who are trying to facilitate the transition of so many children with disabilities into regular classrooms. We have a growing shortage of special ed teachers and our colleges of education have to do a much better job preparing regular classroom teachers to teach children with disabilities.

In the Administration and the Congress, we need to keep working together to give parents and teachers and administrators the resources that they need to get the job done. Funding for our grants to states and pre-school programs have actually gone up 174% in the last ten years, outpacing the 44% increase in the total number of children served. Congress has been very generous in the last few years. Let's also remember that the number of disabled children spending at least 80% of their time in the regular classroom has more than doubled to 2.3 million. We really need to re-think how we think about special education. Special education is no longer a distinct and separate place. It is not that -- a place for many of our children with disabilities -- but it is rather a set of important services. Not a place, but services.

Let me conclude by saying that we will continue working very hard through other technical assistance efforts such as workshops, extensive training opportunities in the four new IDEA Partnership projects to give everybody the data they support that they need to make these regulations work. I believe that if we will come together and focus on what's important -- that is getting all of these children the quality education they deserve -- we will continue to make the steady progress that we have been making on behalf of these children. I thank you very much. (Video ends)

CORINNE RUSSELL: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Corinne Russell coming to you live from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. As you can tell from that thoughtful and inspiring welcome from Secretary Riley, this is a big day indeed for children with disabilities and for the thousands of dedicated individuals who have worked so hard to build and strengthen IDEA '97. Over the next two hours, we're going to have a frank discussion about the new IDEA '97 regulations that were released on March 12th. First, representatives of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services here in the studio and educators and researchers in the field will illuminate aspects of the regulations that we know are important to you. Then we'll open up for questions from the floor and from the airwaves so we can answer your additional questions in detail.

Throughout the discussion, we'll focus on two things: one, ensuring that these new regulations are clear and easy to understand; and two, guiding you to a variety of resources that will make implementation smoother and more effective in classrooms and communities across the nation. I'm joined here in the studio by Judy Heumann, Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, and by Tom Hehir, Director of the Office of Special Education Programs, also known as OSEP. Judy and Tom will talk in detail about the major issues addressed in IDEA '97 and in these regulations. They'll look at the role of regular education teachers in IEPs, the importance of assessments, new guidance on discipline and other important issues. Their presentations will shed light on the extensive opportunities that IDEA '97 has created for improving the lives and achievement of students with disabilities.

We'll also be spending some time with representatives of OSERS' partner organizations. These individuals have contributed a great deal of time and energy to the creation of the IDEAS that Work series, a program of technical assistance that we hope will guide you during the next year. Following the presentations by Tom and Judy, these representatives will tell us about the role their organizations are playing to support families, educators, and virtually everyone who works with children with disabilities.

Those of you who have received the materials from the OSERS and the Policymaker Partnership Web site should already be familiar with the variety of ways that you can get your questions to us. If you would like to reach us by telephone during the question-and-answer session, you can call toll free at 1-800-664-4470. If you'd like to submit your questions by TDD, you can dial 1-800-400-6010. Questions submitted by e-mail should be addressed to pmp@nasdse.org. And questions sent via fax to be sent to 202-651-6161. We're anticipating that there will be quite a number of questions, therefore, we may not be able to answer every one. However, we will later provide a technical assistance document featuring answers to questions received following the release of the final regulations. From time to time during the program, we will review this information again. We have reserved most of the final hour of the program to take your questions about the information presented during the teleconference, and we'll provide additional information about how to send additional questions if we run short of time. We are committed to helping you in every way possible to successfully implement IDEA '97.

Now I'd like to introduce Judy Heumann. Judy will open our program with a few words about the new regulations about some exciting new resources in the IDEAs that Work information series.

JUDITH HEUMANN, Assistant Secretary, OSERS: Thank you, Corinne. I'm very pleased to be here today. Now that we have officially released the new regulations for IDEA '97, I think we can all look forward to a candid discussion about how to make them work best for our students and our schools. And we're not going to stop there. OSERS will be communicating in a number of ways over the next few weeks, months and years about a variety of resources that make up the IDEAs that Work information series.

In developing these resources, we have one simple goal: to provide you a clear road map for easy navigation through the regulations, along with real-life, research-validated examples, and ideas that work for helping students with disabilities to do their very best. Interestingly enough, some of our best resources for this information come from you. Feedback on the success of our approaches and services for children with disabilities has been enormously useful in the development of the entire IDEAs that Work information series.

In the satellite teleconference series, for example, we have tapped into the expertise and experience of a variety of educators and researchers who have forged new pathways for student achievement at the state, district and local school levels. We will also produce videotapes and audiotapes of today's teleconference and the one that was held on March third. You can find out how to order them by logging onto our Web site at www.ed.gov.

To help ensure that families, policymakers and teachers receive the information that they need, and to make our two-way conversation more interesting and informative, OSERS has also funded four major Partnership Projects. Each project includes national associations and organizations working together to meet the needs of those who are essential to the successful implementation of IDEA '97. These groups include millions of families and advocates, policymakers in all 50 states, 750 colleges and universities that prepare general and special educators, 75,000 local administrators, and 3.8 million providers of general and special education services. Partnership activities will include World Wide Web sites, on-site technical assistance, toll-free telephone numbers, print and video materials, conference presentations and teleconferences like the one we're having today. For information on the full range of technical assistance available to all of you, please contact our Web site, as I said earlier, www.ed.gov.

In a few minutes, Tom is going to start our discussion about the specifics of the new regulations, but first I'd like to give you a quick overview of what we've done to make the regulations package easier to read and understand. As many of you know, we at the U.S. Department of Education published an NPRM, a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, in the Federal Register in October of 1997, to invite public comment on the changes that were proposed for Part D of the statute. We published the full text of the regulations as they would be amended because we wanted to provide a meaningful way for families, agency officials and the general public to review these changes within the context of the existing regulations. We also wanted to invite comments of both the existing regulations and the proposed changes to the regulations. These comments were enormously helpful. They allowed us to learn a great deal from the extraordinary work that's being done in this field every day, all across the country. All of the comments were carefully reviewed and analyzed by our wonderful staff. The result -- a user-friendly document that directly addresses your needs. Nearly 60% of the sections included in the NPRM reflect technical or substantive changes based on the recommendations that we have received from you.