As you know by now from mass media sources, the House passed HR 1350 and the Senate passed S 1248 reauthorizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The current issue of Special Edge published by California Services for Technical Assistance Training (see http://www.calstat.org/) includes a quick review of its mandates, and is worth checking out. Five areas are highlighted: increased flexibility; high expectations and accountability; improved results through access to the general curriculum; education with nondisabled peers when possible; and parent participation and involvement. So we still have the tools. All the rest is in the details.

Also not news by now is the fact that the California High School Exit Exam has been postponed to 2006. Nobody's sure whether that's the good news or the bad news.

If you know anyone with kids struggling with language skills, don't miss these resources. I find them really useful:

Ladders to Literacy Outreach Project http://www.wri-edu.org/ladders/

Hear and Say Reading http://www.bainbridgeislandrotary.org/Reading/default.htm (There's a video you can order.)

Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children http://www.nap.edu/catalog/6023.html What's unique here is you can look at the table of contents of a book that interests you, then download a specific chapter for $2.40.

Starfall http://www.starfall.com/ Free materials for kids in the early grades to practice reading and writing.

Handbook of Early Literacy Research http://nieer.org/resources Select Fast Facts then Pre-School Literacy Standards and you'll find the twenty-one states that have established standards. The list doesn't include California.