104 STAT. 1108 PUBLIC LAW 101-476—OCT. 30, 1990 "(2) Panels under paragraph (1) shall be composed of individuals with disabilities, parents of such individuals, individuals from the fields of special education, related services, and other relevant disciplines. "(3) The Secretary shall convene panels under paragraph (1) for any application that includes a total funding request exceeding $60,000 and may convene or otherwise appoint panels for applications that include funding requests that are less than such amount. "(4) Panels under paragraph (1) shall include a majority of non- Federal members. Such non-Federal members shall be provided travel and per diem not to exceed the rate provided to other educational consultants used by the Department of Education and shall be provided consultant fees at such a rate. "(5) The Secretary may use funds available under section 618 and parts C through G to pay expenses and fees of non-Federal members of the panels. "(i) The Secretary shall conduct at least 1 site visit for each grant, contract, and cooperative agreement receiving $300,000 or more annually under parts C through G. "(j)(l) With respect to the discretionary programs authorized by parts C through G, the Congress finds as follows: "(A)(i) The Federal Government must be responsive to the growing needs of an increeisingly more diverse society. A more equitable allocation of resources is essential for the Federal Government to meet its responsibility to provide an equal educational opportunity for all individuals. "(ii) America's racial profile is rapidly changing. While the rate of increase for white Americans is 3.2 percent, the rate of increase for racial and ethnic minorities is much higher: 38.6 percent for Hispanics, 14.6 percent for African-Americans, and 40.1 percent for Asians and other ethnic groups. "(iii) By the year 2000, this Nation will have 260,000,000 people, one of every three of whom will be either African- American, Hispanic, or Asian-American. "(iv) Taken together as a group, it is a more frequent phenomenon for minorities to comprise the majority of public school students. Large city school populations are overwhelmingly minority, e.g., Miami, 71 percent; Philadelphia, 73 percent; Baltimore, 80 percent. "(v) Recruitment efforts within special education at the level of preservice, continuing education, and practice must focus on bringing larger numbers of minorities into the profession in order to provide appropriate practitioner knowledge, role models, and sufficient manpower to address the clearly changing demography of special education. "(vi) The limited English proficient population is the fastest growing in our Nation, and the growth is occurring in many parts of our Nation. In the Nation's 2 largest school districts, limited-English students make up almost half of Eill students initially entering school at the kindergarten level. Studies have documented apparent discrepancies in the levels of referral and placement of limited-English proficient children in special education. The Department of Education has found that services provided to limited-English proficient students often do not respond primarily to the pupil's academic needs. These trends pose special challenges for special education in the referral.
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