This article examines the history of learning disabilities (LDs) on college campuses, from the introduction of the concept in the early 1960s to its spread throughout American higher education during the 1990s. At first, colleges offered relatively little assistance and urged students to compensate for their LDs by working harder and adopting…

We use critical qualitative methods to demonstrate how ambiguities present in definitions of learning disability (LD) and processes for determining LD eligibility under IDEA result in inequitable outcomes for minoritized students. To investigate this issue, we first outline how the LD label is situated within medical and psychological…

Given the interdisciplinary influences on school psychology along with its requirement to comply with federal and state law in the United States, scientific progress in the area of cognitive assessment and specific learning disabilities (SLD) identification has experienced slow, if not stagnant, progress. Extrapolation of research from one…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) allows alternate pathways for school districts to identify and classify students with a specific learning disability (SLD). Response to Intervention (RtI) is one of the frameworks schools can use when eliminating the use of the discrepancy model. The premise of RtI posits that…

In 2025, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) will have been the primary law driving the field of special education for 50 years. A contentious area of disagreement has been the relationship between two primary mandates of the law: the obligation of schools to provide a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) to eligible…

Laws, practices, and research about reading difficulties have been gradually and rapidly changing since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1974. It is difficult for schools to keep up, especially when it takes approximately 16 years for research to reach widespread public knowledge. In this article, I frame the…

Students in the United States who receive special education services are entitled to receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that provides an appropriate level of benefit. Although IEP content is informed by policy mandates and practice recommendations, research has yet to investigate the degree to which school practice is in alignment.…

This study investigated the determination eligibility practices for Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) within Mississippi school districts, framed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004 (IDEA) and Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) guidelines. A survey of 139 educational professionals in Mississippi offered insights into…

School psychologists are well served to stay up to date on trends in special education law, particularly with respect to determinations when school teams' decisions are challenged. This allows them to focus on proactive best practices that foster accurate specific learning disability (SLD) identification and active collaboration with parents. This…

The U.S. Department of Education, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, underscores every child's right to integrate, receive support, and fully participate in school life. The problem is that significant disparities exist in reading growth scores between students with disabilities taught in special-education resource settings and…

This study investigates the impact of states' adoption of Response to Interventions (RTI) on the identification and placement of students in special education. RTI, adopted by the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2004, is designed to improve the identification and support of children with learning disabilities…

Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is an outgrowth of Response to Intervention (RtI). The various systems of support for students and school communities provided through these programs are integral to modern education and embedded in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) of 2004. While there are many benefits to…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a method for providing academic support to students and for identifying specific learning disabilities (SLDs). Using interrupted time series and hazard models, we examined if statewide RTI adoption in the U.S. state of Tennessee was associated with changes in rates of SLD and first-time SLD identification in…

Writing in science can be challenging for all learners, and it is especially so for students with cognitive or language-based learning difficulties. We examined the effects of a cognitive apprenticeship on student disciplinary writing skills as well as near and far transfer of learning outcomes. This instructional approach included a gradual…

The identification of students with specific learning disabilities has evolved since the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) in 2004. This reauthorization gave state agencies parameters that disallowed using the severe discrepancy model for identification as a stand-alone method. In response to…