School improvement providers - even those who do not offer services to students with special neeeds - ought to become aware of revenue opportunities presented by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004.

For example, Section 613(a)(10)(D) allows school districts to uses IDEA funds as part of a schoolwide program authorized by No Chlid Left Behind Section 1114.

Andrew Brownstein, writing in the August 23 issue of the Title I Monitor, discusses the U.S. Department of Education's interest in the uses of IDEA funds by Title I directors to serve students who might otherwise be identified for special education.

But as a recent Education Department (ED) conference for the National Association of State Title I Directors (NASTID) demonstrates, those educational decisions have financial ramifications. The obvious one stems from the fact that special education services can cost 50 percent more per student than general education; hence, if over-identification drops, overall costs should drop as well. At the NASTID meeting, the focus was on the use of the new 15 percent set-aside for “early intervening services”— outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) — as a possible funding stream to be used in conjunction with Title I....

ED officials wasted little time in making their position known. “You could combine these two pots of money,” said Larry Wexler of ED’s office of special education and rehabilitative services, speaking of the IDEA set-aside and Title I. Kay Rigling, a department attorney, said, “It’s like a larger Title I program. Think of it that way.”...

Using the set-aside is voluntary unless there has been a pattern of overidentification. The law specifies that districts that over-identify racial and ethnic minorities for special education must set aside the full 15 percent for early intervention services.

The relevant portion of the law, IDEA Section 613(f) reads:

Early Intervening Services.--

            ``(1) In general.--A local educational agency may not use more than 15 percent of the amount such agency receives under this part for any fiscal year... to develop and implement coordinated, early intervening services... for students in kindergarten through grade 12 (with a particular emphasis on students in kindergarten through grade  3) who have not been identified as needing special education or related services but who need additional academic and behavioral  support to succeed in a general education environment.

            ``(2) Activities.--In implementing coordinated, early intervening services under this subsection, a local educational agency may carry out activities that include--
                    ``(A) professional development (which may be provided by entities other than local educational agencies) for teachers and other school staff to enable such personnel to deliver scientifically based academic instruction and behavioral interventions, including scientifically based literacy instruction, and, where appropriate, instruction on the use of adaptive and instructional software; and
                    ``(B) providing educational and behavioral evaluations, services, and supports, including  scientifically based literacy instruction.

The basic idea here is to recognize a class of students who fall between what passes for our our expectation of the typical student, and those who have special needs triggering the complex and expensive IDEA process.  In some cases, we are talking about children who are "overidentified" for Special education services in order to get them out of the normal classroom or into any kind of extra assistance. In others we are talking about students who clearly fall outside our views of chidren in "special ed", but who nevertheless need extra attention, yet receive nothing.  The legislative effort to give these students the right kinds of help requires a meshing of two complicated bureacracies and cultures, but the Deaptment does want it to happen, and it may create business opportunities.