School BUSRide spoke with Kara Arundel, senior reporter for K-12 Dive (www.k12dive.com), about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) marking its 50th anniversary. She spoke about the milestone’s significance, the impact of IDEA on transportation, and how transportation professionals can continue to stay involved and enhance services for students with disabilities.
We are marking 50 years of IDEA. How significant a moment is that, in your opinion?
Kara Arundel: It’s a significant anniversary because IDEA began as a civil rights movement on the heels of a landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education. Before IDEA, there was no federal guarantee of a free, appropriate public education for students with disabilities.
Now, some states did go ahead and make that guarantee, but it wasn’t uniform nationwide. What I also think is significant is the evolution over time of the implementation of IDEA. When the federal law first began, students with disabilities were allowed in the school building; that was a big moment. But fast-forwarding to now, there are accountability systems in place and best practices to ensure that students with disabilities have access to grade-level academic standards and that they are meaningfully included in other aspects of school life.
How would you characterize the impact of IDEA on our education system and on the lives of the children it has served? Do you feel it has achieved what its framers set out to achieve all those years ago?
Arundel: I think the impact of IDEA has been tremendous. I mean, parents have told me really heartbreaking stories of their children getting a disability diagnosis at a very young age and being told what their child wouldn’t be able to do, both as a young child and even looking into adulthood. It was always negative.
I think IDEA has helped change that mindset and change the future of millions of students and children with disabilities because they’re getting educational support and peer interactions; interactions with their classmates who don’t have disabilities. I’m not an expert in the day-to-day, but I’ve really thought about this question because I think it’s important. One thing I’d say is that it should start with relationships and relationship building. That’s something that I hear a lot from special education experts.
For kids, the school bus driver is the hero. So, the bus driver’s kindness and attention to each student and their family matters a lot.
Is it perfect everywhere? No. But there has been a major focus for decades on supporting students with disabilities and also supporting those educators who work with those students and, really importantly, the families who have children with disabilities.
To repeat something I heard recently: “Don’t forget that special education students are general education students first.”
Our members are engaged daily in getting yellow school buses to transport 25 million children to their education, and that includes many students with disabling conditions. Can you comment on that role that we play?
Arundel: Under IDEA, the student’s individualized education program team (whichincludes administrators, educators, parents, related service providers, and sometimes the students when they’re older) needs to consider whether each student needs transportation accommodations to support academic progress.
That might mean having an aide support a student on the bus. Or it could mean the student is entitled to a pickup right in front of their home. Whatever the accommodation, it’s based on each student’s individualized need on a case-by-case basis.
Under IDEA, this is at no cost to parents if the accommodation is listed on the student’s IEP. But it’s important to say that doesn’t mean school systems must transport students with disabilities separately from general education students.
IDEA has a provision called “least restrictive environment,” which is about determining the best setting for students with disabilities, starting with the most general inclusion alongside their non-disabled peers. This applies to transportation, too.
So, students with disabilities can and often do ride alongside their non-disabled peers when that’s the best setting. But sometimes students need a more restrictive setting, which might mean a specialized school bus. Again, this is decided case-by-case.
How can we get more training and preparation for school bus drivers to help them do their jobs for students with disabilities and IEPs?
Arundel: I’m not an expert in the day-to-day, but I’ve really thought about this question because I think it’s important. One thing I’d say is that it should start with relationships and relationship building. That’s something that I hear a lot from special education experts.
For kids, the school bus driver is the hero. So, the bus driver’s kindness and attention to each student and their family matters a lot.
The other aspect is safety. In addition to driving a bus and staying alert to traffic, a bus driver is monitoring student behavior. If a student with disabilities has accommodations specific to their bus ride, like special seating or loading/unloading protocols. The driver really should be aware of those.
That goes back to relationships between transportation experts and the school or district administration.
What do you see coming on the horizon that gives you hope for IDEA and special education, including implications for transportation?
Arundel: I think we’ll see more innovative practices. Hopefully, that includes helpful technology for drivers as they safely transport students. I’m also thinking of overall road safety.
I live in Washington, D.C., and some of these roads are really difficult to navigate in my small car. So I’m hopeful for more road improvements, maybe backed by technology like road-calming practices that can help traffic safety overall.
Specifically for school buses, cameras that capture cars illegally passing stopped buses are hopefully helping decrease that behavior.
As for special education, districts are struggling with teacher shortages as well as driver shortages, and that pressure extends across the entire school system, which all supports students with disabilities. That makes it harder to ensure best practices reach every area – not just the classroom but extracurriculars and the school bus.
That’s why school experts say relationships between transportation experts, educators, students, and families are key.
What challenges lie on the horizon, including funding, that we will face in working with IDEA and special education, including how it might affect transportation?
Arundel: Two challenges. One is that the special education population overall is increasing, while overall student enrollment, including students with and without disabilities, is decreasing, at least per national data.
That might mean more and more students with disabilities will need transportation accommodations.
The second challenge is funding. Districts are adjusting to the post-COVID financial landscape. For several years, they had federal emergency aid and flexibility in spending. but that’s ended now.
So now they’re adjusting back. And federal, state, and local funding all play a role in supporting transportation services and students with disabilities. Watching those levels is super important.
In one word, how are you feeling about IDEA as we reach this 50-year milestone?
Arundel: In one word: curious.
I’m curious about what’s going to happen in the next 10 years. I started covering special education with the 2004 IDEA reauthorization, which was the last time Congress made major changes to the law.
So, I’m curious: does Congress open up that rulemaking and legislative process again?
And I’m curious to see what trends bring. Everyone is hopeful that schools can close (or at least narrow) the academic performance gap between students with disabilities and general education students. Making sure students with disabilities are included in rigorous, grade-level academic standards is key.
I’ve also done stories following students as they transition out of high school and into adult life to colleges and careers. I’m really looking forward to covering more of that.
When the framers of IDEA, and now its supporters, put in the work to support infants, toddlers, young kids, and students with disabilities, the goal is that when they graduate high school, they’re prepared with the skills they need to succeed in college and careers.
So, I’m looking forward to writing about best practices that support this.