MESA (By Kelly Carr, Arizona Republic) July 4, 2007 — Joe Zello is the special-education director of Mesa Public Schools, and right now his mind is consumed with changes in a federal law that affects his students.

Just before the holiday weekend, he stuffed the trunk of his car with books on education laws and policies to gear up for days filled with rewriting regulations.

Zello, like other special-education directors across Arizona, had to make sure he understood how to implement the reauthorization of the Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. The new version went into effect Friday.

"This stuff is in volumes and it's complicated, but when you really understand it, it can be distilled to common language where people understand it," Zello said. "That's the challenge."

The updates in the law, which was originally adopted in 1976, affect a range of special-education issues, including schools' approach to discipline and how parents monitor their child's success.

Although the changes went into effect at the beginning of the month, the final regulations that the state will help implement won't be ready for several months.

Public hearings on the law are being held across the nation. In September, public comment will be analyzed and the federal Department of Education will decide whether any changes should be made.

Since the law took effect in July, it means that districts had to implement what they think could be final regulations.

"Right now, we are just guessing," said Lynn Busenbark of the Arizona Department of Education. "The direction we have to take is what is clear from statute (that) the districts have to implement and also what is not contradictory to the old regulations."

School districts across the nation are trying to decide how to communicate the changes to their employees and parents. They are working to make sure they comply with the law.

Highlights of IDEA's revisions include changing students' Individual Education Plan, stricter disciplinary guidelines, and switching the age requirement for instruction on transition to adulthood from age 14 to 16.

The law also asks for highly qualified teachers and the possibility of districts' footing the cost for all special-needs children who attend private schools within their boundaries.

In the West Valley's Agua Fria Union High School District, Special Education Director Michael Duncan said procedures are in place that will help the transition to the new IDEA requirements.

The district will bring its teachers in for special training to answer questions and concerns. The district also formed a committee that developed a 150-page manual to help employees understand the regulations.

The revisions have sparked concerns, questions and promise in the minds of teachers and parents.

Most agree with lawmakers that requirements for special education should be aligned with the No Child Left Behind law, which is based on the notion that every child should receive a quality education.

Some teachers, like Debbie Plogman in the Deer Valley Unified School District, agree that highly qualified teachers should be required in special education.

Plogman also is pleased that the federal government has taken action when it comes to defining student behavior.

The IDEA changes will help schools better identify whether a student's behavior is attributed to his or her disability or is a disciplinary problem, she said.

In the past, disciplinary procedures were sometimes confusing for both parents and school officials. The new law simplifies the process.

"I'm glad they are looking at it," Plogman said. "It's a real fine line between the disability and the behavior. This will empower special-education teachers to see that something is a behavior issue that should be addressed, and not the disability."

As a parent, Sharon Moeller said she plans to wait until the school year is under way to see how the law unfolds for her autistic son in Pinal County. Moeller, an Apache Junction resident, also spends her days as a parent information-network specialist, helping Arizona parents understand things like IDEA.

"It will be trial and error," she said. "As a parent dealing with a special-needs child, you work with the school and go from there. What I will do as a parent is sit down with his IEP (Individual Education Plan) team and see how the changes affect him directly."

For special-education directors like Zello, changes in IDEA mean long hours of sorting through information. It's his job to explain to teachers what's changing, to rewrite school regulations and explain to parents how their child is affected. But after all this work, Zello still isn't sure that all these regulations will stay or whether there will be more adjustments to deal with.

"I'm going through all of our written procedures and identifying what needs to be modified," he said. "Because the new law takes effect now, we are not able to wait for the final wording to do what we think they want us to implement."