Vote Fixes Education Law for Disabled

The House voted to overhaul a far-reaching law guaranteeing free public education to more than 5 million disabled children nationwide, giving schools new flexibility and parents more input. The overwhelming 420-3 bipartisan vote to rewrite the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was the culmination of months of intense negotiations between the White House and both parties in Congress. The most contentious issue was discipline. The bill would make it easier for schools to remove disabled students from the classroom if they posed a threat to themselves or others. But it does not allow a cutoff of educational services in severe cases, as some lawmakers wanted. It would gradually change the federal funding formula to reduce what critics said were incentives for schools to identify students as disabled.