POLICY LETTER: April 22, 2008 to Texas Education Agency General Counsel David Anderson

April 22, 2008Mr. David Anderson, Esq. General CounselTexas Education Agency 1701 North Congress Avenue Austin, TX 78701-1494Dear Mr. Anderson:This letter is in response to your January 25, 2008 letter to Patricia J. Guard of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) concerning educational standards recently issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for children housed at ICE residential family facilities. You indicate the standards describe special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that ICE facilities must provide to children with disabilities and express concern that these standards conflict with OSEP's earlier response to you regarding a State's obligation under the IDEA to children in ICE facilities.In OSEP's December 21, 2007 letter to you, responding to your January 20, 2007 letter in which you requested clarification of the Texas Education Agency's (TEA's) obligation to provide special education and related services, including child find, to children housed in an ICE facility, we indicated that the IDEA makes no specific provision for funding child find or educational services for individuals with disabilities through the ICE or Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We stated that, absent any other applicable law, the State has no child find obligations under the IDEA for children residing in ICE's residential facility, similar to a State's responsibility for children with disabilities in Federal prisons. We indicated, however, that the ICE facility and the State or local school district could enter into a voluntary agreemOffice of Special Education Programscc: Kathy Clayton