By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 5, 2001; Page A03

The Bush administration is moving to revamp the federal law that guarantees disabled students a "free, appropriate" public education, saying that the landmark legislation has spun out of control since it was enacted more than a quarter-century ago.

President Bush earlier this week appointed a commission to recommend changes in the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by next spring, when Congress is scheduled to rewrite the law.

While many advocates and members of Congress complain that the federal government has never adequately funded special education, Bush administration officials have stressed that special education students too frequently achieve poorly in school despite the vast amounts of money spent to educate them.

"The IDEA has yet to fulfill its promise," Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige said yesterday in testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee. "The doors are open, but the system still denies too many students the opportunity to reach high academic standards."

The law covers a broad range of disabilities, including mental retardation, deafness, language problems, and emotional and other learning disabilities. It requires local school systems to provide disabled students appropriate educational services, including small classes and specialized instruction, as well as ancillary services, such as transportation and special materials.

When the law was enacted in 1975, it was hailed as a watershed for disabled students, who frequently were overlooked or abused by the nation's public schools.

Since then, millions of disabled students have received special services under the law. But it has also proven to be a costly burden to many school districts. Meanwhile, many critics say that it has not provided sound instruction to many disabled students, prompting calls for an overhaul.

In 1975, the federal government pledged to pay 40 percent of its cost but never kept the promise. Federal funds now cover only a small portion of the cost -- more than $7 billion annually out of an annual total of $60 billion. State and local funds cover the rest.

Overall, the nation's special education programs enroll roughly 12 percent of the nation's schoolchildren. By some estimates, special education spending has accounted for 40 percent of all new money invested in K-12 education over the past three decades.

Meanwhile, studies have found that black students are over-identified for special education programs. That problem not only consumes vast amounts of money in financially pressed school systems, but also segregates many students into low-achieving classes that put them on a course for school failure.

"The proportion of minority students identified in some disability categories is dramatically greater than their share of the overall population," Paige said.

Nationally, he said, 2.2 percent of black students are identified as being mentally retarded, a rate nearly three times that of whites. Likewise, 1.3 percent of black students are labeled emotionally disturbed, almost twice the rate for whites. In the end, fewer than half of black students with disabilities graduate from high school.

In testimony yesterday, Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) said that, in practice, many special eduction students are cast "to the shadows" of public education. "They are being dropped out without being physically dropped out of school," he said.

The congressional testimony came one day after Bush announced the formation of his special education commission. The 16-member panel will be chaired by former Iowa governor Terry Branstad (R).

Education advocates greeted the prospect of a revamp of special education with both applause and skepticism.

"Every time the law is reauthorized, people set out great ideas," said Andrew Rotherham, an education analyst at the Progressive Policy Institute, which recently issued a report calling for changes in special education policy. "But what has frequently happened is far less. There is tremendous resistance to change."

Lynda Van Kuren, a spokeswoman for the Council for Exceptional Children, said that while special education has problems, many of them would be solved if the federal government fully funded its share of the program's costs.

The Senate this year passed an amendment calling for full funding of special education, but that is being opposed by the White House and House Republicans, who say they want to fix special education policy before increasing funding so sharply.

"The one area that gives us concern is that this commission may thwart efforts to gain full funding for special education," Van Kuren said. "We simply can't wait any longer."