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TIM PUGMIRE: The world has changed dramatically for disabled children in the past 27 years. The federal law requiring a free and appropriate public education has led to numerous opportunities. In the gymnasium at Hosterman Middle School in New Hope, the Robbinsdale Robins take on the Wayzata Minnetonka Lakers in Adapted soccer. The players have physical or health impairments.

On the sideline, Robbinsdale assistant coach Steve Onsum is in his wheelchair watching the team he played for as a student at Armstrong High School. Onsum says the individuals with Disabilities Education Act has helped adapted sports.

STEVE ONSUM: We had our struggles over the years. There's been times when we weren't sure if we were going to get the budget or the support to continue and grow as a league. And having those mandates, I guess sort of made it known that we had to try and give everybody equal opportunities. And that what we've got going here is a good thing.

TIM PUGMIRE: Onsum's team is made up of students from three suburban school districts-- Robbinsdale, Hopkins, and Mound Westonka. Craig Fobes is at the game rooting for his ninth grade daughter Katie. He says he's had to push hard at times to get the Hopkins School district to meet her educational needs.

CRAIG FOBES: I think people in the school districts are well-intentioned people with too much to do and too few resources to do it with. And as a parent, you have to sit out there and push. I don't think that means that the people on the inside aren't wanting to be responsive. But you've got a finite financial pie to slice up lots of different ways.

TIM PUGMIRE: That's why most parents, teachers, and school administrators say Congress must provide more money when it reauthorizes the individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. Since its inception, the law has included a goal of covering 40% of the excess cost of special education. But the subsidy has never topped 15%. Colleen Baumtrog is the special education director for the Minneapolis School District.

COLLEEN BAUMTROG: The number one thing that I hope happens with IDEA reauthorization is that Congress appropriate adequate funding for special education. That is by far and away the most important thing. The budget crises that school districts across the state and across the nation are going through right now in my mind is just inexcusable.

TIM PUGMIRE: The debate over IDEA heated up earlier this year when a presidential panel released its recommendations for a fundamental rethinking of the special education system. The report from the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education proposes more early interventions, greater accountability, and an option of private school vouchers for disabled students.

It also says it's time for a system-driven by student results rather than rules and regulations. Christine Jacks, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning says she agrees with that proposed shift in focus.

CHRISTINE JACKS: It is important for children to be in a climate that is loving and joyous and filled with learning. But if they're not learning what they need to learn to function in society or function at their highest level, then it hasn't served its first purpose. And so I think that we do have to make sure that we're focusing in on results.

TIM PUGMIRE: The commission also wants to provide school districts more flexibility to deal with the complex law and its regulatory burdens. The report recommends simplifying the Individualized Education Program or IEP needed for every special education student. Up to 10 states would get to experiment with reducing the volumes of required documentation. Commissioner Jacks says changes are needed to ease the workload for teachers.

CHRISTINE JACKS: A lot of our special education teachers are really burnt out. They're really pushed to their limits. Teaching is a hard job to begin with. Special education teachers have it harder. It's a lot more physical, it's a lot more emotionally draining, and they have, in many cases, the same student to teacher ratio. So I think that if they're not happy, the students are not going to be thriving as much. And the parents are going to see that.

TIM PUGMIRE: But parents and their advocates are leery of proposals to cut paperwork. They rely on IEPs as legal contracts with school districts to ensure their children's educational needs are met. Paula Goldberg of the PACER Center in Bloomington says schools could reduce the paperwork for teachers by lowering their caseloads. She says the IEP is too important.

PAULA GOLDBERG: It is an accountability measure, and it is a way of parents sitting down with the schools once a year planning together as partners what the child is entitled to, what is a major goal? What is a short term objective? And so that would be one of our concerns that provisions in there would be waived.

TIM PUGMIRE: Goldberg says she doesn't support major changes in IDEA, but she does support increased federal funding. The Presidential Commission left the funding question for Congress to decide. Some education reformer say an influx of money won't solve the problems they see in special education.

MORGAN BROWN: It's created this kind of perverse incentive sometimes to label kids special education because of the additional aid that comes with it.

TIM PUGMIRE: Morgan Brown, Senior Fellow for Education Policy at the Center of the American Experiment says the current system is not serving students, parents, or teachers. He says special education costs will continue to soar because too many students are identified as having special needs, especially those in the broadly defined category of specific learning disability.

MORGAN BROWN: And That category is so vague in what is looking at that there's a lot of concern that we're identifying kids in that category that may not really have learning disabilities, but just may be behind instructionally or in terms of achievement.

TIM PUGMIRE: The Presidential Commission claims thousands of children are misidentified every year. But David Johnson, a professor at the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development says there's no convincing data that shows a widespread problem with overidentification.

DAVID JOHNSON: I think it's a matter of looking at it in terms of, what is the alternative if they tighten the gate such that many students who do need and can benefit from specialist services don't get it, and therefore, don't experience a success they could in public education? That's the real crime. And that puts us back to 1975.

TIM PUGMIRE: Lawmakers are expected to begin tackling the IDEA reauthorization when Congress reconvenes early next year. I'm Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio.