How Colleges Can Help Children With Special Needs

by Eunice Kennedy Shriver

In January 2002, President Bush signed into law a sweeping set of educational reforms to improve America's schools and make them more accountable for student learning. The No Child Left Behind legislation wisely includes students with disabilities in all its mandates -- notably, statewide assessments, annual progress reports, and the requirement that every child is entitled to a qualified teacher. But while such reforms are a good start to ensure an appropriate education for students with disabilities, they are not nearly enough.

More than one year after the signing of No Child Left Behind and nearly 30 years after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -- the federal legislation supporting the education of all students with disabilities --40,000 special-education teaching positions are being filled by people who have not completed a state-approved certification-and-licensure program to become a special-education teacher. As such, they lack the requisite knowledge and skills to meet the specific academic, behavioral, and social needs of students with disabilities.  

This is a national tragedy for thousands of students with disabilities and their families. How can we expect an unqualified teacher to adapt reading instruction for a student with learning disabilities? What leads us to believe an untrained teacher could teach social skills to a student with autism?

The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education has reported that 98 percent of America's school districts have special-education-teacher shortages. That translates to 600,000 students who have been promised a free public education, one that fits their specific needs, but who don't have a qualified teacher to provide it.  

What's more, even if all 40,000 unqualified people asked to be trained tomorrow as special-education teachers, we wouldn't have enough college faculty members to teach them. Today, colleges are producing 30 percent fewer doctorates in special education than they did two decades ago, and one-third of all faculty positions for instructors in special education are vacant.

On average, new Ph. D. 's or Ed. D. 's in special education are 41 years old when they begin their faculty careers at salaries as low as $30,000 for assistant professors. These new special-education teachers are at least 10 years behind in earning power compared with new Ph. D. 's in other professions like mathematics -- in which people complete their doctorates when they are, on average, 30 years old. Such low salaries for new special-education faculty members often encourage them to reject higher education and return to better-paying positions in the public schools.

If the U. S. Congress really means to leave no child behind, then it must act now to provide the resources to recruit and prepare not only new special-education teachers but also the college faculty members who can train them. America's colleges are the engines that drive teacher preparation, and, as the House and Senate work to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Higher Education Act, legislators have an almost unprecedented opportunity to give higher-education institutions the support that they need and deserve.

The reauthorization of the IDEA is well under way. The House passed legislation in April, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee unanimously adopted its reauthorization bill in June. A floor vote on the Senate bill is expected in September. Provisions in the Senate bill have been designed to ensure that teachers in special education are as "highly qualified" as the No Child Left Behind legislation expects all general educators to be. But the House bill is silent on that issue.  It is essential that the conference committee adopt a "highly qualified" standard for special-education teachers that guarantees positive outcomes for students with disabilities.

Just as Congress must set high standards for special-education teachers, it must also provide colleges with the resources they need to train those teachers. Thus far, it has failed to do that; Congressional appropriations for the preparation of new special-education teachers have remained virtually stagnant for two decades. The level of support within the IDEA that is needed to prepare new special-education teachers must at least double, to $180-million, to even begin to deal with the nation's shortage.

Moreover, while the IDEA has been the vehicle to respond to that shortage, it is not sufficient. This crisis demands multiple solutions. As part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which is under way in the House and anticipated next year in the Senate, Congress should develop several important programs -- notably loan-forgiveness programs and tuition tax credits -- to deal with the shortages of teachers and faculty members in special education.

I am pleased to note that, just last month, the House enacted a critical measure that increases loan forgiveness for special-education teachers from $5,000 to $17,500. Both President Bush's fiscal-year 2004 budget and the Congressional Budget Resolution call for increased loan forgiveness, consistent with the House bill. The Senate must now take action before this window of opportunity closes.

In addition to loan-forgiveness programs for elementary- and secondary-school teachers -- and as important -- Congress should also provide up to $30,000 in loan forgiveness for doctoral students in special education and related fields who, in turn, become faculty members in special-education teacher-preparation programs. That would go a long way in helping ease the financial burden on special-education faculty members who must repay loans when they are often less well paid than their peers.

Another needed provision is college tuition credits for special-education teachers. Congress should give grants to colleges that collaborate with one or more local school districts experiencing a significant shortage of special-education teachers. Unqualified people now teaching in schools could obtain the credits as long as they are enrolled in a state-approved special-education program. The money could also be used to enable teacher assistants to become highly qualified special-education teachers.

Finally, legislators need to develop provisions within the Higher Education Act to strengthen the capacity of colleges to train special-education teachers. Congress should appropriate money to help a college or consortium of colleges fill openings for special-education faculty members or create new faculty positions. Colleges would receive the money for up to five years with the caveat that, after that time, they must raise state or private dollars to support such positions.

 Qualified special-education teachers are crucial to the success of students with disabilities and the expansion of educational and employment opportunities for young people with disabilities. I strongly urge people in higher education to tell members of Congress about the importance of dealing with the critical shortage of special-education teachers and faculty members. Loan forgiveness, tuition credits, and the creation of special-education faculty positions at colleges will have a significant impact. It is vital that we take advantage of the unusual opportunities that the reauthorization of two important pieces of legislation provides to ensure that, for students with disabilities, the promise of No Child Left Behind becomes the reality.

 Eunice Kennedy Shriver is the executive vice president of the Joseph P.  Kennedy Jr.  Foundation and honorary chairman of Special Olympics Inc.