The purpose of this article is to provide special educators with significant and perhaps surprising recent lessons in special education law. These lessons under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act range from the threshold issues of child find and eligibility through the central obligation of…

For this 23rd article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the topic is the substantive standard for free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), with a focus on the classification of…

For this 22nd article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the topic is child find and eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including as a secondary matter the intersecting requirement for a comprehensive…

This article highlights the trends in state laws and judicial rulings specific to identification of and interventions for students with dyslexia.

From leading authorities, this indispensable work is now in a revised and expanded second edition, presenting state-of-the-art tools and procedures for practitioners. The book shows how to use response to intervention (RTI) to evaluate K-12 students for specific learning disabilities (SLD). The second edition gives increased attention to…

This next article in the series on evaluation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) focuses on the common, core responsibility of school psychologists for timely completion of the initial evaluation. For this topic, first is a legal analysis and then a discussion for professional implementation that includes ethical…

After dropping steadily from 2000-2001 to 2013-2014, the percentage of students identified under the IDEA classification of specific learning disabilities (SLD) levelled off and increased slightly until the latest data available (2017-2018; NCES, 2019). Despite the recognition in the IDEA amendments of 2004 of response to intervention (RTI) as…

"Evaluation" under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is among the major responsibilities of school psychologists. This concluding article in the series on evaluation under the IDEA provides legal analysis and professional recommendations related to procedural appropriateness. Specifically, it addresses notices,…

The purposes of evaluation, as shown in its definition in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's (IDEA) regulations (2019, § 300.15), concern eligibility and free appropriate public education (FAPE). For the initial evaluation, the focus of the IDEA legislation is to determine whether the child is eligible and, if so, the nature and…

Although varying among and within the states, the percentage of students with 504 plans is steadily and significantly increasing as a national average. Although the professional literature addresses the legal standards for eligibility for 504 plans, it has not provided up-to-date information to practitioners as to the legal standard for the…

Extended school year (ESY) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has become a more frequent issue as a result of the learning loss and increased needs of some special education students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. School psychologists often play a significant role in implementation of the IDEA requirements specific to ESY.…

The purposes of this article are (a) to canvass the current legislation, regulations, and illustrative agency policy interpretations specific to "transition services" under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2018), and (b) to provide an update of the court decisions since the coverage of an earlier overview of the…

The peer-reviewed special education literature has included notable attention to the peer-reviewed research (PRR) provision that the 2004 amendments added to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, as with the other IDEA issues, the legal accuracy of this translating treatment for special education professionals is subject…

Although reading remains a priority in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the basis of the case law primarily is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) due in significant part to its open adjudicative avenue. The purpose of this article is to provide a synthesis of the judicial rulings under the IDEA specific to reading…

The special education literature has included a continuing line of articles and chapters that have translated for practitioners the legal meaning of the progress monitoring provisions in the successive versions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This article examines this line of publications in light of the language of the…