On June 29, 2020, Senators Maggie Hassen (D-NH), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Chris VanHollen (D-MD) introduced the “Supporting Children with Disabilities During COVID-19 Act.”  The purpose of the Act is to support one time emergency funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to support the needs of students with disabilities and their teachers.

The Senate is not in session until July 20^th, so now would be an excellent time to write your Senator to support this Act.  The Council for Exceptional Children’s Policy and Advocacy Center (https://cec.sped.org/Policy-and-Advocacy) includes a sample letter of support for the Act that will be emailed directly to your Senators.  Just enter you zipcode and the letter, which is addressed to your Senators, will be ready to go!

The best way to stay current on events in Washington D.C. that will affect special education and students with disabilities is to frequently go to the Council for Exceptional Children’s Policy and Advocacy Center and sign up for the free weekly email updates (https://cec.informz.net/CEC/profile.asp?fid=3292) and read the “Policy Insider Blog” (https://cecblog.typepad.com/policy/)

There are also many excellent resources available on the Council’s website (http://cec.sped.org).