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Empowering Families in Special Education Act
To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to require notification with respect to individualized education program teams, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill, the Empowering Families in Special Education Act, amends the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to require local educational agencies to notify parents about their participation rights in individualized education program (IEP) team meetings. Specifically, agencies must notify parents, prior to the first IEP team meeting each school year, that they may include other individuals with knowledge or expertise about their child on the IEP team, including related services personnel. The notification requirement is designed to ensure parents are informed of their right to involve additional participants in their child's special education planning.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO] (R-MO)
4 cosponsors
- Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH] (D-NH)
- Sen. Sheehy, Tim [R-MT] (R-MT)
- Sen. Warnock, Raphael G. [D-GA] (D-GA)
Actions (2)
- Feb 26, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
- Feb 26, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 26, 2025
Mr. Schmitt (for himself, Mrs. Shaheen, and Mr. Padilla) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to require notification with respect to individualized education program teams, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Empowering Families in Special Education Act”.
SEC. 2. NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENT FOR IEP TEAMS.
Section 614(d)(1)(B) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1414(d)(1)(B)) is amended—
(1) in clause (iv), by redesignating subclauses (I) through
(III) as items (aa) through (cc), respectively (and by conforming the margins accordingly);
(2) by redesignating clauses (i) through (vii) as subclauses (I) through (VII), respectively (and by conforming the margins accordingly);
(3) in the matter preceding subclause (I), as so redesignated, by striking “The term” and inserting the following:
“(i) In general.—The term”; and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
“(ii) Notification required.—Within a reasonable timeframe prior to the first convening of the individualized education program team for a child with a disability for a school year, the local educational agency that serves such child shall notify the parent of such child that such parent may, under clause (i)(VI), include other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child, including related services personnel as appropriate, as part of the individualized education program team.”. <all>
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