Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the readability of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B procedural safeguard documents, as distributed by each of the 50 U.S. states. Results were compared to the 5th- to 6th-grade readability guideline for documents recommended by experts in health literacy and health…

The proliferation of the Internet, computers, and mobile devices means that students of all ages, socioeconomic statuses, geographical locations, and abilities have access to higher education institutions that were previously unavailable. As the population of the United States ages and the number of students with diagnosed disabilities grows,…

With the growing use of technology in today's schools, electronic IEP programs are being adopted by many school districts around the nation as part of special education service delivery. These programs provide a useful technology that can facilitate compliance with IDEA requirements in IEP development while concurrently lessening teacher paperwork…

Our country has been trying to address the graduation crisis in many ways. We are seeing the impact of the efforts to improve graduation rates over the past twenty years including agreement among states to implement a common cohort-based graduation rate, research-based efforts to improve the transition to 9th grade, increased academic and social…

Providing pre-service early childhood general educators with a strong knowledge base of key aspects of early childhood special education is essential in the United States as US federal law mandates it. Specifically, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) stipulates that children with special needs must to be placed in the least…

Assistive technologies are often promoted to schools, parents and educators as tools to assist students with special needs by providing a compensatory value, to remediate learning problems and to promote personal independence. These technologies range from simple spellcheckers to more complex speech recognition systems and educational software.…

While it is difficult to identify an exact number of children with hearing impairments, the General Accountability Office and IDEAData.org report that the incidence of children who are deaf or hard of hearing is small, representing about 1% of all identified students with disabilities (GAO, May 2011; IDEAData.org, 2009). Variability in the…

Educators in today's classroom face increasing challenges which include the changing complexities of student needs, the intricacies of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the demands of high stakes standardized state assessments and the continuous and often widely publicized issues associated with budget constraints. With all of these challenges,…

Video self-modeling (VSM) is a relatively new technique for modifying and training behaviors and has accumulated a relatively impressive track record in the research literature. Using only positive examples, VSM gives persons the opportunity to view themselves performing a task just beyond their present functioning level via creative editing of…

Research shows that assistive technology (AT) can help young children with disabilities to learn developmental skills. Its use may help infants and toddlers to improve in many areas: (1) social skills including sharing and taking turns; (2) communication skills; (3) attention span; (4) fine and gross motor skills; and (5) self confidence and…