Most students with complex support needs are taught in separate special education classrooms; one reason is teams that inappropriately use the intensity of support needs as the basis for placement in more restrictive placements. This study used Bayesian multilevel modeling to determine whether the intensity of student support needs predicted…

The Office of Early Learning and School Readiness provides technical assistance and resources for our partners working with families, preschool staff and communities to meet the individual needs of preschool children with disabilities. The goal of this manual is to offer information to preschool programs and school districts that are responsible…

Providing opportunities for students with disabilities to engage in activities that can promote self-determination is deemed best practice (Landmark et al., 2010; Wehmeyer et al., 2013). One setting where these skills may be continually refined is during an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting (Agran & Hughes, 2008; Arndt et al.,…

Teachers of children with disabilities are not providing consistent opportunities for assistive technology (AT) services, even when mandated to do so. This phenomenon contributes to children with disabilities not receiving services that help their educational growth and development. The purpose of this study was to explore perspectives of K-2…

The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive, multi-site case study was to determine the criteria individualized education program (IEP) teams used to find the least restrictive environment (LRE) placement for a student with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at the elementary school level. The theoretical framework of this study was Maslow's theory…

Studies examining seasonal variation in academic skills for children have focused on learning loss or stagnation during the summer, particularly for students from low-income or minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds. In this study, we expand the literature to focus on another student population that may be susceptible to summer learning loss:…

Extended time for testing is frequently recommended despite the possibility that it may have unintended negative effects. Test process data, now commonly available "via" computer-based testing programs, can offer objective information about who uses and experiences higher scores when using more than typical testing time. NWEA MAP test…

Adolescents who have been diagnosed with disabilities constitute a significant portion of the school population in the United States. For example, the National Survey of Children's Health identified one in four children ages 12 to 17 as having special healthcare needs in 2019 (Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health, n.d.). In the…

The extent to which reading achievement is causally impacted by eligibility for special education services due to a learning disability (LD) or speech or language impairment (SLI) is currently unclear. In this registered report, we analyzed U.S. national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort of 2010-2011 (ECLS-K:…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how public-school IEP team members describe decision-making influences and thresholds in least restrictive environment (LRE) placement for K-5 students with significant support needs in the Midwest. Decision-Making Ecology served as a framework for two research questions which…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational-predictive study was to assess if and to what extent the Proportion of IEP Students, Years of Teaching Experience, and Grade Level Taught in an inclusion classroom, individually and combined, predict Job Satisfaction among general education teachers who teach in an inclusion classroom in the United…

The COVID-19 pandemic radically altered the educational landscape for parents, teachers, and school-aged children. During the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, restrictions transformed tools of communication, delivery of instruction, and traditional roles within brick- and-mortar schools. Rather than being relegated to a passive role in their…

The transition to formal schooling is a large contextual change, which for many children in U.S. begins with the year of kindergarten. To better understand the challenges of this transition, the present study examines the extent to which children experience transition difficulties in five salient areas: making friends, following schedules, meeting…

The aim of the study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the use of social-emotional goals in Individualized Education Program (IEP) for elementary students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH). Thus, there is a need to provide more than academic skills in school, which are related to social-emotional learning. Over the past century,…

Background/Context: As of Fall 2021, approximately 7.3 million students between the ages 6 to 21 were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which accounts for approximately 15%of students in that age range (U.S. Department of Education, 2022). Students with disabilities receiving special education services are guaranteed a…