The 2004 IDEA Reauthorization went into effect on July 1, 2005. However, it was until August 14, 2006, that the U.S. Department of Education issued the final regulations for this amended legislation. The regulations, which were officially effective on October 12, 2006, repeat the legislative provisions and also fill in various other more specific requirements. The following is a top ten of the requirements for special educators. The bracketed citations are to specific sections in the IDEA regulations, which are available at various websites, including http://idea.ed.gov. The final step will be for each state to incorporate the federal regulations in its own special education law with any additional requirements in the direction of protecting students with disabilities. Indeed, the regulations repeat the 2004 requirement that states identify in writing to both the U.S. Department of Education and local districts any such state-imposed additions. Local policies and practices, of course, must be in accord with these federal and, if any, added state requirements. Each of the following items starts with the pertinent provisions, if any, in IDEA 2004, and then proceeds to those in the 2006 IDEA regulations. 1. Eligibility for Specific Learning Disability The 2004 IDEA amendments provided that states may no longer require severe discrepancy and must permit scientific, research-based intervention--known more generally as responsiveness to intervention (RTI)--as part of the multi-source evaluation approach for determining eligibility under the classification of specific learning disability (SLD). The 2006 IDEA regulations added a host of refinements to these statutory changes for SLD eligibility. For example, the regulations (a) require each state to adopt criteria for determining SLD eligibility that permit or require RTI, permit (or, possibly, prohibit) severe discrepancy, or permit or require a research-based alternative [[section] 300.307]; (b) add an eighth specified area for eligibility--reading fluency skills [[section] 300.309(a)]; (c) change the primary frame of reference to the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) benchmarks of state-approved grade-level [[section] 300.309(a)]; and (d) specify various required considerations, such as data-based documentation of repeated assessments of achievement at reasonable intervals, reflecting formal assessment of student progress during instruction, which was provided to the child's parents [[section] 300.309(b)]. For a more complete but concise catalog of the changes, see www.nrcld.org. 2. Consent for Initial Services The 2004 amendments removed the authority of a hearing officer to override the parent's lack of consent for initial services, while forfeiting the child's right to FAPE (free and appropriate education) unless, and until, the parent provided such consent. The 2006 regulations extended this limitation to initial evaluations and reevaluations for home-schooled and parentally placed private school children [[section] 300.300]. 3. Highly Qualified Teacher Requirement The 2004 IDEA amendments made clear that the NCLB's requirements for and not new highly qualified teachers apply to special education teachers; they must be highly qualified in special education and in any core academic subjects that they teach. At the same time, IDEA 2004 provided limited relaxation of--not an exception from--these requirements for two situations: (a) special education teachers who teach core academic subjects to children ... assessed against alternate achievement standards; and (b) special education teachers who teach 2 or more core academic subjects exclusively to children with disabilities [20 V.S.C. [section] 1402(10)]. The 2006 regulations add various refinements, including (a) allowing an alternative certification route that meets specified standards [[section] 300. …