INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT.

SEC. 912. INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT. (a) Training or Retraining.—Section 631(a) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1431(a)) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraph: “(8) In making grants under paragraph (1), the Secretary may provide for the training or retraining of regular education teachers who are involved in providing instruction to individuals who are deaf, but who are not certified as teachers of such individuals, to meet the communications needs of such individuals.”. (b) Notice.— (1) In General.—Within 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall issue a Notice of Inquiry concerning the definition of the term “serious emotional disturbance” as used in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (2) Public comment.— The Secretary of Education shall provide a public comment period of at least 90 days and shall request and consider— (A) comments from the public on the need to revise the definition of the term in the regulations implementing such Act; and (B) comments from the public on whether the term as used in such Act should be changed and on whether the substitution of the term “emotional and behavioral 106 STAT. 4487disorders” would be appropriate, or whether some other term should be used. (3) Definition.—The Notice of Inquiry shall contain the following proposed definition for use in the regulations implementing such Act: “(1) As used in section 602(a)(1) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1401(a)(l)): “(A) The term ‘serious emotional disturbance’ means a disability that is— “(i) characterized by behavioral or emotional response in school programs so different from appropriate age, cultural, or ethnic norms that the responses adversely affect educational performance, including academic, social, vocational or personal skills; “(ii) more than a temporary, expected response to stressful events in the environment; “(iii) consistently exhibited in two different settings, at least one of which is school-related; and “(iv) unresponsive to direct intervention applied in general education, or the condition of a child is such that general education interventions would be insufficient. “(B) The term includes such a disability that co-exists with other disabilities. “(C) The term includes a schizophrenic disorder, affective disorder, anxiety disorder, or other sustained disorder of conduct or adjustment, affecting a child, if the disorder affects educational performance as described in paragraph (1). “(2) The term ‘seriously emotionally disturbed’ means, with respect to a child, that the child has a serious emotional disturbance.”. (4) Report.—The Secretary shall, within 10 months after the date of enactment of this Act, prepare a report containing a summary of the public comments described in paragraph (2)(B) received as a result of the Notice of Inquiry, and recommendations concerning whether such Act should be amend-ed. The report shall be submitted to the appropriate committees of Congress, including the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives, and the Subcommittee on Disability Policy of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate.