June 10, 2003

Clinton and Collins Announce Bipartisan
Legislation to Prevent Developmental Disabilities

Washington, DC - Today, Senator Hillary Clinton (NY) and Senator Susan M. Collins (ME) introduced the 2003 Act to Prevent Developmental Disabilities in Education. With more than 12 million children suffering from a developmental, learning, or behavioral disability, this legislation is designed to identify preventable causes and stop this growing epidemic.

"How can we expect our children to learn in the classroom if their homes are making them sick? In New York State, more than 12,000 children suffered from lead poisoning, and 9,533 of those children live in New York City. It is time for us to stand up and protect our children from threats that exist in their environment," Senator Clinton said. "In order to succeed in life, every child needs a healthy start: loving parents, quality health care and nutrition, a strong education and an environment that is free from hazards that impede their ability to reach their full potential. This legislation would help us identify links between environmental hazards and disabilities so that our children can lead healthy lives."

"Childhood lead poisoning remains the number one public health threat to children," Senator Collins said. "Despite the fact that childhood lead poisoning is entirely preventable, Maine children are at particularly high risk for lead poisoning because more than 60 percent of our state's homes were built before lead-based paint was banned in 1978. I will work with my Senate colleagues to urge passage of this legislation to ensure that every child can live in an environment free of hazards such as lead."

This legislation would require the Department of Education to coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve data collection on developmental disabilities and study possible causes of high disability rates and environmental causes. At this time, the Department of Education collects information on the prevalence of disabilities among children in schools and the Centers for Disease Control collects information on environmental toxins, but the two data systems are not coordinated. With the National Academy of Science releasing a study that says 28 percent of developmental disabilities are due to environmental cause, a strong partnership between the DCD and the Department of Education is needed to better understand the correlation between a child's ability to learn and his or her environment.

The federal and state education departments spend a staggering $43 billion each year on special education programs for individuals with developmental disabilities between three and twenty-one years of age. By coordinating these data systems, policymakers and researchers could better identify where environmental hazards may be causing developmental disabilities and target these areas for abatement. If 1% of developmental disabilities can be prevented by coordinating current efforts, then $926 million can be saved in health and special education services.

Senator Clinton and Senator Collins will fight to include this provision in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which is being reauthorized by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee