The McKinney-Vento Act was originally authorized in 1987 and originally sponsored programs to provide services to the homeless. The McKinney-Vento Act is designed to address the challenges that homeless children and youths have faced in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under the McKinney-Vento Act, State educational agencies (SEAs)…

This National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who are Neglected, Delinquent, or At-Risk (NDTAC) practice guide examines the principle that quality education services are critical for youth involved with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. This principle asserts that, to address the…

Developing positive school climates and improving school discipline policies and practices are critical steps to raising academic achievement and supporting student success. However, there is no single formula for doing so. Rather, the growing body of research and best practices in the field should inform locally developed approaches to improving…

This article examines the benefits of educator study groups, outlines the different types of educator groups, and provides guidelines for forming educator study groups. Membership of the group, leadership, assessment of needs, creation of the study group, materials, meeting organization, and group evaluation are addressed. (Contains references.)…

This article focuses on early intervention implementation concerns and recommendations for addressing the needs of the wide range of infants and toddlers with disabilities and families to be served. It describes providing services in natural environments, as well as the issues of personnel preparation and models of service delivery. (Contains…

This guide is intended to help occupational therapists maintain and update their professional competency through use of a self-appraisal competency checklist. The first section discusses issues related to competence such as the demands of new situations or client populations and the essentially self-directed nature of the lifelong process of…

Discusses the need of special education teachers for a mentor to help them through the critical first year of teaching students with special needs. The different reasons why special education teachers, in particular, need mentors are listed, along with the ways mentoring assistance could be provided. (Author/CR)

This article presents the knowledge and skills determined by the Council for Exceptional Children to be necessary for assistive technology specialists. These competencies are designed to provide guidelines for districts as they seek to employ a specialist and guide individuals interested in serving as specialists in their professional development.…

Procedures for individualizing inservice for special education personnel are outlined and described. Six steps are pictured in a flow chart and detailed in the test (sample substeps in parentheses): establish organized management (establish agency goals, prepare explicit job descriptions of personnel responsibilities); prepare and administer staff…

This article presents strategies intended to enhance the efficacy of early intervention inservice training efforts, including: basing training activities on participants' needs, specifying goals and outcomes, specifying objectives and linking them to outcomes, linking specific inservice training activities to objectives, and using model sites to…

This document examines key leadership issues related to effective special education and reviews emerging standards in knowledge and skills for effective principal performance. An introduction notes school responsibility to provide students with disabilities with access to the general curriculum and ongoing monitoring of progress. The paper then…

This article discusses changes in effective teaching practice and characteristics of different levels of acceptance of school cultures. It reports the results of a survey of 72 inclusion teachers showing that teachers believed their attitude toward students was the first or second most important condition needed for successful inclusion. (Contains…

This guide is intended to assist groups of special educators to plan, design, and implement mutual professional support activities. The first section, on the nature of professional support groups, presents a definition and discussion of activity focus, format, permanence of focus, and structure. The second section looks specifically at the role of…

This guide was developed to provide teachers, related service personnel, administrators, paraprofessionals, and other individuals charged with assisting in the development of Minnesota's paraprofessional workforce, with information and strategies to build strong, effective, supportive teams to ensure successful educational services for all…

This introductory article describes key factors in teacher preparation and continuing professional development and efforts promulgated by the Council for Exceptional Children on special educator standards and assessments. The need to align standards for state licensing, program accreditation, and national certification is emphasized. The following…