Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities

The Secretary proposes to amend regulations under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Part B of IDEA or the Act) that govern the Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities program, including the Preschool Grants program. Specifically, the Secretary proposes to amend the IDEA Part B regulations to remove the requirement for public agencies to obtain parental consent prior to accessing for the first time a child's public benefits or insurance (e.g., Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)) to provide or pay for required IDEA Part B services. As there are no comparable consent requirements prior to accessing public benefits for children without disabilities, the removal of this consent requirement would align public benefits consent requirements for children with disabilities to those for children without disabilities and ensure equal treatment of both groups of children.