Special education, a discipline that aims to provide specialized instruction to meet the unique needs of each child with a disability, has turned 40 years old in the United States. Ever since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142) in 1975, every state has been directed to provide a free and appropriate…

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), PL-94142, mandated parent participation as a required component of the provision of special education services to children with disabilities. It is widely recognized that a collaborative teaming approach is the most effective strategy to foster parent participation (Friend & Cook, 2010; A.…

Problem solving is fundamental to psychoeducational assessment practices and generally grounded in activities related to identifying problems, developing and refining hypotheses, generating solutions, developing and implementing actions, and evaluating outcomes. While the process is central to response-to-intervention practices as well, little…

Adapted physical education (APE) is designed to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities within the least restrictive environment. Placement in the right environment can help the child succeed, but the wrong environment can create a very negative experience. This article presents a systematic approach to making decisions when…

Reviews historical trends and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, problems in the use of interdisciplinary teams, varying degrees of team member participation and satisfaction, concerns about the team decision-making process, and implications of the special education team mandate for the training of gerontology professionals. (SK)

Describes a systemwide participatory planning model designed to facilitate improvement of secondary learning disabilities programs. The model had three phases: central program planning and description, school-based program planning, and implementation and evaluation. This program generated a sense of shared ownership and direction among one…

The authors emphasize that, although the "Education for All Handicapped Children Act" provides for inclusion of students in the individual education program (IEP) meeting, few parents and students are aware of the possibility. Suggestion are made for parents and school personnel about ways to include students. (MC)

The article focuses on the provisions of Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) which involve nondiscriminatory assessment procedures. The author proposes the use of nondiscriminatory decision-making processes using data obtained from intervention effectiveness statistics rather than norm referenced tests. (PHR)

The author considers fundamental economic considerations which underlie decisions concerning individual education programs (IEPs) as mandated by P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) for handicapped students. (SB)

In light of recent legislation, school psychologists, administrators, and teachers are required to decide if handicapped pupils' educational needs can be met in regular classrooms. Information that may be used to derive this placement decision is examined. Decision-making guidelines are proposed. (Author)

Comments on an article by Dunst and Bruder. Twenty years ago, amendments to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 99-457, 1986) included language that required each state early intervention system to ensure that families had access to a case manager. The article by the authors and the study conducted as part of the Research and…

Observation of 26 initial placement/individual education plan (IEP) conferences for elementary age learning-disabled children found minimal parent participation during the conferences, but parents reported, in postconference interviews, satisfaction with the conferences. Results are related to the intent of P.L. 94-142, the Education for All…

Allowing children to participate in special education decision-making only at the discretion of their parents and the school system deprives them of any meaningful involvement and expression of their own concerns. Outlines models for involving children in such decision-making and giving them more meaningful roles in planning their educational…

In placement decisions necessitated by PL 94-142, the multidimensional team approach may be hindered by group problems. The more structured nominal group technique (NGT) is suggested. NGT has six steps: silent, written generation of ideas; round robin reporting; group discussion for clarification; preliminary priority vote; discussion; and final…

Several lawsuits in Connecticut have led to an attempt to develop public criteria for making residential placements of exceptional children for educational rather than noneducational reasons. This article delineates criteria for making the decision, the processes by which these criteria were developed, and the rationale behind them. (MLF)