Tues Feb 14th AM Daily Do's

*** YOUR DAILY DO’S – TUESDAY, 7 AM EDITION ***   Mary Park
OMG! Flynn resigns! Who knew what and when and is this whole house of cards going to blow? It’s enough to make the most even-keeled among us feel hyper-vigilant. 
That vigilance unfortunately is an everyday feeling in lots of houses where special-needs kids live (like, uh, mine). More so than ever these days, with a Secretary of Education who doesn’t seem to know what IDEA (federal law guaranteeing a public education for students with disabilities) is one minute and thinks it should be “left up to the states” the next. Not to mention an Attorney General who thinks special-needs kids are “the single most irritating problem for teachers throughout America today.” 
Yikes! It doesn’t help that during DeVos’s confirmation the Education Department’s IDEA website went down. It’s since been replaced with a placeholder citing “technical issues” and rerouting to the text of the act itself, where once special-needs families found a user-friendly “one-stop shop” for learning about the law and what it meant. (Thank you waybackmachine: https://web.archive.org/…/2…/http://idea.ed.gov/explore/home.) I'm sure that doesn't mean anything ominous and was 100% a coincidence, though.
So what can you do to help? 

• * First, thank Senators Murray and Cantwell for demanding answers about the IDEA outage: https://www.disabilityscoop.com/…/senators-answers-i…/23315/   They need to know their constituents care about our most vulnerable students and that we’re watching what happens next. (Contact info in comments.)
• * Next, write a letter telling Congress asking them to hold schools responsible for the achievements of all students: https://secure2.convio.net/…/Advocacy;jsessionid=FA3BB59F15…   Congress is currently rewriting ESEA, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left Behind, and they need to know that schools should be required to provide evidence-based interventions and support when students—including those with disabilities—aren’t making progress.
• * Finally, get informed about what vouchers mean for special education students. Senator Tim Scott has re-introduced the so-called CHOICE act: https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/new-bill-offers-glimpse-…/…​  What’s the matter with CHOICE? After all, it allows IDEA funding to follow the student to a private school. The thing is, though, that private schools aren’t obligated to follow federal laws regarding students with disabilities. Basically, this is a way to funnel federal dollars to private institutions without holding them to the same standards as public schools. Florida tried this; it didn’t end well.  http://www.miaminewtimes.com/…/mckay-scholarship-program-sp…

We can do better than this. We are better than this.
Tell Senators Murray and Cantwell to oppose the CHOICE act. Any institution receiving public money should be held accountable to federal laws surrounding students with disabilities.
(Contact info and link to bill text in comments)
#DailyDos

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/265

Senator Murray: (202) 224-2621 DC; (206) 553-5545 Seattle
Like · Reply · 5 hrs

Mary Park Senator Cantwell: (202) 224-3441 DC; (206) 220-6400 Seattle
Like · Reply · 5 hrs

Mary Park OR visit the senators' office hours at either 12 noon or 1 pm today at the Federal Building auditorium. Thank you Indivisibles!

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