From COPAA, please email and call and make your voice heard.
CALL/EMAIL CONGRESS TO COSPONSOR
IDEA FAIRNESS RESTORATION ACT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2011
ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2011, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE AND ASK THEM TO COSPONSOR THE IDEA FAIRNESS RESTORATION ACT (S.613 AND H.R. 1208). This bill will allow parents to recover expert witness fees when they prevail in due process hearings and court actions under the IDEA.
IDEA gives parents the right to an impartial due process hearing, but parents must be able to afford expert witnesses to testify at those hearings. Expert witnesses can include psychologists; physicians; speech, occupational, physical, and other therapists; educational experts; positive behavioral support experts, and others. Without expert witnesses, most parents cannot prevail. Sometimes, school districts sue parents and parents must have expert witnesses to adequately defend themselves.
The IDEA Fairness Restoration Act will restore the right to recover expert witness fees for parents and students with disabilities. Congress intended that parents have this right when it amended the IDEA in 1986. But in 2006, the Supreme Court acted contrary to this intent and held that parents could not recover expert witness fees in Arlington Central School District v. Murphy. Plaintiffs in other civil rights cases, like ADA cases, recover fees, and this bill would simply give parents the same right.
ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2011, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE AND ASK THEM TO COSPONSOR S.613 and H.R. 1208. It is crucial that Congress hear from parents of children with disabilities, advocates, attorneys, family, friends, and colleagues that this legislation is very important. If you cannot do call/email on May 4, please do it the week of May 2‑6, 2011.
Please share this action alert broadly.
HOW TO CONTACT CONGRESS: It is best to call your Representative and Senators. Calls are more personal and more attention is paid to them. Even a 2 minute call is very helpful. But if you need to email because of work schedule, disability, or other reason, please do so.
CALL CONGRESS. Call your Congressional Representative and Senators and ask them to Cosponsor S.613 and H.R. 1208, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. You can call them at
202-224-3121 (TTY 202-225-1904). If you do not know who they are, you can look them up at www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. Ask for the staff member who handles education or disability. Share with them the information below.
SEND AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. You can email your Congressman through their special forms on House of Representatives Website, http://www.house.gov/writerep , and write your Senators through their Web Form on the Senate website, http://1.usa.gov/Senat
SAMPLE EMAIL / INFORMATION TO SHARE IN YOUR CALL. Here is information you can share with Congress as you ask for support. You can use it for your phone call, or you can cut and paste it into an email form. If you email, it helps to personalize it with even a few sentences about your child or your legal/advocacy practice. You might add something like “We are the parents of a child with autism and it is important to us that you support this bill, so we can afford due process if we are ever forced to go.” Or write something longer and more personalized.
Dear Congressman/Senator,