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Today, the Obama Administration outlined how states can get relief from provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – or No Child Left Behind (NCLB) – in exchange for serious state-led efforts to close achievement gaps, promote rigorous accountability, and ensure that all students are on track to graduate college- and career-ready. “To help states, districts and schools that are ready to move forward with education reform, our administration will provide flexibility from the law in exchange for a real commitment to undertake change. The purpose is not to give states and districts a reprieve from accountability, but rather to unleash energy to improve our schools at the local level,” President Obama said. What this means for you:   For Teachers: A collaborative learning culture where teachers can target instruction towards the needs of students and offer a well-rounded curriculum. Fair and responsible evaluations that are based on multiple measures including peer review, principal observation, and classroom work.  For Principals: Greater flexibility to tailor solutions to the unique educational challenges of their students and recognition for progress and performance.  For Parents: Accurate and descriptive information about their children’s progress and honest accountability that recognizes and rewards success – where schools fall short – targeted and focused strategies for the students most at risk.  For Students: A system that measures student growth and critical thinking to inspire better teaching and greater student engagement across a well-rounded curriculum. For more information on how this flexibility package may affect you, read our blog post: What NCLB Flexibility Means for You

As President Obama has so often said, change in America happens from the bottom up.  It happens when people organize, speak out, and have a seat at the table.  Recently, President Obama met with some youth with disabilities. He wanted to hear their thoughts about the future of disability policy. So, he sat down with participants from the American Association of People with Disabilities internship program. These future leaders spent their summer in DC, interning with various organizations. 

President Barack Obama signed a three-year extension of the Combating Autism Act Friday, the very day the law — and many of the programs it established — was set to expire. The reauthorization Obama signed calls for $231 million annually through 2014 to fund everything from autism research to prevalence tracking, education, early identification and intervention programs.

An effort by the Obama administration to overhaul the troubled federal agency that is responsible for the education of tens of thousands of American Indian children is getting major pushback from some tribal leaders and educators, who see the plan as an infringement on their sovereignty and a one-size-fits-all approach that will fail to improve student achievement in Indian Country. As Barack Obama makes his first visit to Indian Country as president this week, the federal Bureau of Indian Education—which directly operates 57 schools for Native Americans and oversees 126 others run by tribes under contract with the agency—is moving ahead with plans to remake itself into an entity akin to a state department of education that would focus on improving services for tribally operated schools. A revamped BIE, as envisioned in the proposal, would eventually give up direct operations of schools and push for a menu of education reforms that is strikingly similar to some championed in initiatives such as Race to the Top, including competitive-grant funding to entice tribal schools to adopt teacher-evaluation systems that are linked to student performance. The proposed reorganization of the BIE comes after years of scathing reports from watchdog groups, including the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and chronic complaints from tribal educators about the agency’s financial and academic mismanagement and failure to advocate more effectively for the needs of schools that serve Native American students. It also comes a year after U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell called the federally funded Indian education system “an embarrassment.” The BIE is overseen by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is housed within the U.S. Interior Department. Pushback From Tribes The proposal, released in April, was drafted by a seven-person “study group” appointed jointly by Ms. Jewell and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Five of the panel’s members currently serve in the Obama administration. Some of the nation’s largest tribes, however, are staunchly opposed to the proposal, including the 16 tribes that make up the Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association, which represents tribal leaders in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. “It’s time for us to decide what our children will learn and how they will learn it because [BIE] has been a failure so far,” Bryan V. Brewer, the chairman of the 40,000-member Oglala Sioux tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D., said last month in a congressional hearing on the BIE. In the same hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Charles M. Roessel, the director of the BIE and a member of the panel that drafted the plan, said the agency’s reorganization “would allow the BIE to achieve improved results in the form of higher student scores, improved school operations, and increased tribal control over schools.” (Despite multiple requests from Education Week, the BIE did not make Mr. Roessel or any other agency official available for an interview.)

The Obama administration moved forward today to implement provisions in the health care law that would make it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. The provisions of the Affordable Care Act also would make it easier for consumers to compare health plans and employers to promote and encourage employee wellness.

In 2009, the Civil Rights Division launched an aggressive effort to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., a ruling that requires states to eliminate unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities and to ensure that persons with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. President Obama issued a proclamation launching the "Year of Community Living," and has directed the Administration to redouble enforcement efforts. The Division has responded by working with state and local governments officials, disability rights groups and attorneys around the country, and with representatives of the Department of Health and Human Services, to fashion an effective, nationwide program to enforce the integration mandate of the Department's regulation implementing title II of the ADA.

The National Institutes of Health is awarding nearly $100 million in grants — the most ever — to research the causes of autism and look for treatments. The funding is part of $5 billion that’s being awarded by the NIH to study autism, cancer and heart disease, among other conditions. The grants represent half of the NIH funding allotment from the federal economic stimulus package enacted earlier this year. Collectively, the grants are “the single largest boost to biomedical research in history,” President Barack Obama said at the NIH Wednesday.

The Power of the Parent Voice: Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Leadership Mega Conference August 3, 2010 Related Resources Conference website Good morning. When President Obama s

But one thing is absolutely essential—and that's parent involvement. Parents of students with disabilities are some of the most determined advocates. Parents are key partners in policymaking and practice, pushing for greater access and better outcomes for their own and others' children. I want to applaud you for your dedication to children with disabilities—and their parents. I also want to say I wish it wasn't necessary for parents to be such fierce advocates. I understand that parents are compelled to advocate because they see that their sons and daughters aren't getting the free, appropriate public education that federal law guarantees them. President Obama and I believe that every child deserves a world-class education. When we say every child, it is not just rhetoric—we mean every child, regardless of his or her skin color, nationality, ethnicity, or ability. Over the past 37 years, with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, we've made great strides in delivering on the promise of a free, appropriate public education for children with disabilities.

The President signs the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 into law, explaining and deliver brief remarks on the impact of this law on people with disabilities.

President Barack Obama publicly honored Rosa Marcellino at the White House Friday, days after signing a bill carrying her name which will strip the term “mental retardation” from some areas of federal law.

President Barack Obama’s heath care reform proposal released Monday includes many of the provisions disability advocates have been pushing for. The $950 billion proposal comes ahead of a bipartisan health care summit planned for Thursday and retains many elements advocates consider favorable for people with disabilities. Notably, the plan would prevent coverage denials based on a preexisting condition and allocate additional federal funds to expand Medicaid.

Funding for special education, autism research and other programs aimed at Americans with disabilities is nestled within the $3.8 trillion budget proposed Monday by President Barack Obama.

The Obama administration on Saturday called for a broad overhaul of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests, narrowed the curriculum, and labeled one in three American schools as failing.

The Obama administration's blueprint to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) will support state and local efforts to help ensure that all students graduate prepared for college and a career. Following the lead of the nation's governors and state education leaders, the plan will ask states to ensure that their academic standards prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace, and to create accountability systems that recognize student growth and school progress toward meeting that goal. This will be a key priority in the reform of NCLB, which was signed into law in 2002 and is the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).

On Wednesday, December 22, President Obama signed the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Act of 2010 (H.R. 1246/S. 3199) into law. The bill, which was passed earlier this month by the Senate, was passed by the House on December 15.

The legislation reauthorizes and expands EHDI legislation passed nearly 10 years ago, increasing state funding for follow-up services to ensure that babies initially identified with a potential hearing loss receieve full diagnostic evaluations and, if necessary, are enrolled in early intervention programs. The act also promotes culturally sensitive family support services.

President Obama has challenged us all to help “Win the Future” by out-educating, out-innovating, and out-building our competitors in the 21st century. President Obama believes the best ideas come from the American people. That’s why the White House started a series called “Champions of Change.” Each week, the White House selects 5-20 Americans, businesses, or organizations who are doing extraordinary things in their communities. This series highlights a different group each week ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community activists. The Office of Public Engagement hosts a roundtable event here at the White House to honor those who are “Winning the Future” and empowering and inspiring other members of their respective communities.  Agency representatives and White House Policy Offices participate in the event and host a discussion on amplifying best practices learned in each area. Paired with each White House event, these “Champions” are featured on the White House website. The Champions of Change series is designed for people to look into their communities and nominate everyday heroes who are demonstrating commitment to improving their own communities, their country, or their fellow citizens. That is why the White House is looking for you to nominate someone as a “Champion of Change” who is doing extraordinary things to make a difference in your community. The White House will consider your nominations as they feature people who are bringing about change in their communities to share their ideas on how to win the future. Champions of Change, for example, are: Longstanding businesses that are expanding or investing in new ideas, companies that are adding jobs, hiring back those they laid off and investing in their workers and entrepreneurs who are “betting on winning the future” - starting new companies or commercializing new ideas. People rebuilding neighborhoods, putting brownfields, vacant housing and buildings back to work, making the streets safe for children to play in, creating opportunities for neighbors to come together and harnessing the power of the arts to forge awareness and new bonds. Innovative teachers and school leaders creating engaging and rigorous learning environments that get results, out of school programs providing hope, inspiration and opportunity, young adults setting off to be entrepreneurs or leaders in their communities, programs giving adult learners the skills they need to succeed in a 21st century economy. Communities restoring our waterways and preserving our parks, prairies and preserves for future generations, programs investing in our farmlands and rural America, inventors and innovators harnessing America's natural resources for our shared clean energy future. For more information on the Champions of Change Series and past Champions, please visit:www.whitehouse.gov/champions.  To nominate someone as a Champion of Change, please visit: www.whitehouse.gov/champions/nominate. 

Washington, DC — Last Wednesday, President Obama visited the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to announce the single biggest investment in biomedical research in American history. Among the $5 billion in grants he announced are new explorations of longtime research targets from cancer to heart disease. But the grants also include the largest-ever investment in an Obama administration priority that has so far gone mostly unnoticed: autism research.

President Barack Obama signed an expanded hate crimes bill into law Wednesday making it a federal offense to commit a crime against a person based on their disability.