IDEA Website Feedback

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) strives to enhance its Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) website continually.

OSERS launched its IDEA website in June 2017 in order to provide updated department information regarding the IDEA to the public including students, parents/families, educators, service providers, grantees, researchers and advocates.

Prior to and after the launch of the site, OSERS gathered feedback from the public and has made updates to the site based on the feedback it received.

OSERS will continue to gather feedback about the website in order to enhance and add content to the IDEA website to ensure the site remains current.

Two video tutorials highlight features of the site:

Comment below if you have feedback regarding the IDEA website.

Set Your Bookmarks to the New IDEA Site

IDEA Website

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services will automatically direct users from the Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004 site to the new Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) website starting April 30, 2018.

OSERS launched the new IDEA website in June 2017 in order to provide updated department information regarding the IDEA to the public including students, parents/families, educators, service providers, grantees, researchers and advocates.

IDEA website users are encouraged to bookmark the new IDEA website: https://sites.ed.gov/idea.

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Share Your Comments on the Revamped IDEA Website

New IDEA Website Banner

We hope you’ve had an opportunity to visit our revamped IDEA website. We would like to get your feedback on the new IDEA website as we continue to develop and enhance the content and functionality.

Your feedback on the site is essential for helping us improve the Department’s online resources as part of our commitment to ensure that infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families have the supports and services guaranteed under the IDEA.

Please submit your feedback on this OSERS Blog post announcing the new Website.

View the New IDEA Website

U.S. Department of Education Launches Revamped IDEA Website

New IDEA Website header graphic

June 5 Update:

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback regarding the new IDEA website. Please note:

  • The new website can be found at: https://sites.ed.gov/idea.
  • The Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004 site can still be found at: http://idea.ed.gov.
  • The Department of Education experienced latency issues across all ed.gov sites June 1-3. These latency issues caused links to timeout and documents to freeze. If you experience site delays, please let us know below.

The new and improved Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) website has arrived! During the last two months, more than 130 of you have taken the time to offer thoughtful feedback as to what you would like to see in a revamped IDEA website. Thank you for your important and informative comments.

With your input driving the project, the new site has:

  • Improved Site Navigation and Design
    You asked for a visually-appealing, easier-to-use site that reduces the number of clicks it takes to get you where you need to be. We’ve updated the design and worked to simplify the site’s interface to make locating information more intuitive to the user.
  • Expanded Search Options
    You asked that we keep the statute and regulation search capabilities from the Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004 site but also include a policy document search. We kept the search capabilities, but we updated the search to reflect the most recent statute and regulations. As many of you requested, the search also includes policy documents, such as Dear Colleague letters, OSEP memos, FAQs and policy letters.
  • Resources for Specific Audiences
    You asked that we highlight resources specific to various IDEA stakeholder groups. We’ve created resource pages specific to parents/families, educators/service providers, and grantees. For non-English speakers, we created a Language Support page that links to one of our grantee’s resources in Spanish, and we’ve provided additional information about the Department’s language assistance, which is offered in more than 170 languages.
  • Expanded Content with Streamlined Resources
    You asked that we expand content and streamline the site’s resources covering IDEA and other federal agency-related initiatives. We expanded our Topic Areas page to include more topics with updated information and links to reflect Department and Federal resources as well as resources from the Office of Special Education Programs-funded grantees. We’ve provided links to existing IDEA-related data reports, State Performance Plans/Annual Performance Reports and grant award letters. We’ve highlighted laws and resources related to individuals with disabilities that are under the jurisdiction of other Departments and Federal agencies. We’ve pulled together a list of frequently-used acronyms and terms.

Relevant content from the Legacy site has transitioned to the new IDEA site and the Legacy site will remain online while we continue to refine the new IDEA site.

We would like to get your feedback on the new IDEA website as we continue to develop and enhance the content and functionality.

Your feedback on the site is essential for helping us improve the Department’s online resources as part of our commitment to ensure that infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families have the supports and services guaranteed under the IDEA.

View new IDEA Website

Department of Education Seeks Comments on New IDEA Website

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has expressed her commitment to ensuring that infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families receive support and services they are entitled to under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Recently, the Department of Education’s IDEA website, IDEA.ed.gov, which provides information and resources related to the IDEA 2004 reauthorization, was unavailable due to a technical malfunction from an external hosting service provider. Once the IDEA website became functional again, the Secretary directed the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to create a new and improved IDEA site and include stakeholder input as part of the development process. The current IDEA.ed.gov site will remain available to users during and after the development of the new IDEA website.

OSERS is seeking input from users of the IDEA.ed.gov website as part of our effort to provide updated, easy-to-navigate IDEA resources to children with disabilities and their families, teachers, administrators, advocates, and other stakeholders.

To help us facilitate this effort, we ask that you address the following items in the comment section below:

  1. What are the resources you use most often at IDEA.ed.gov?
  2. What additional information and/or functionality would you like to see included in the new IDEA site?
  3. Your title or role/designation (such as student, parent, educator, advocate, counselor, etc.), to help us gain a better understanding of who uses IDEA.ed.gov.

OSERS appreciates your support and suggestions as we continue efforts to improve our online resources as part of our commitment to ensure that infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families have the supports and services guaranteed under the IDEA.

To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personally identifiable information, such as a name of a child or school personnel, a Social Security number, an address, a phone number or an email address in the body of your comment. Comments containing the aforementioned information will not be allowed to remain on this site.

If you have a child-specific complaint or issue, please contact our customer service line at 202-245-7459.