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…

This is an official position paper of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD), of which the Council for Learning Disabilities has been a long-standing, active member. Response to intervention (RTI) is a critical component of a multi-tiered service delivery system. This NJCLD paper presents concerns related to the…

The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the identification and delivery of special education services for students across the United States. Many students, regardless of previous disability status, are demonstrating increased academic, social-emotional, and medical needs in school in response to instructional disruptions and other impacts of the…

Response to intervention (RTI) allows schools to support the academic success of English learners (ELs) while helping educators rule out cultural or linguistic differences and educational background as the root of ELs' academic or behavioral struggles. However, in rural schools, insufficient training in how to effectively instruct ELs and limited…

Since their emergence in public schools, specific learning disability (SLD) identification practices have been controversial in both research and practice. The purpose of this special issue is to present contemporary research on various models of SLD identification as well as issues associated with their implementation. Each of the articles in…

When a child's parents request a special education evaluation, the school generally must promptly evaluate the student. However, many schools implement response to intervention (RTI) to provide students with regular education interventions prior to evaluating the student for special education eligibility. School psychologists may find themselves…

Proposed guidelines have been published recently (Al-Hilawani, 2016) to help identify and determine for the first time the existence of learning disabilities among students in the Middle East Arab (M.E.A.) countries. These guidelines have been drawn from recent and up-to-date information available on learning disabilities. The purpose of this…

The California Association of School Psychologists (CASP) responds to a critique of the Association's Position Paper: "Specific Learning Disabilities and Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses" (2014, March. Available: http://casponline.org/about-casp/publications/) by McGill and Busse. The CASP offers corrections to McGill and Busse's…

Reading is a skill that is required in a variety of settings. It is a skill that begins developing early in children's school years and continues to develop well into their adult lives. Unfortunately, many children struggle to become successful readers with only basic classroom instruction. Therefore, it is imperative that schools use a…

When discussing the eligibility determination of students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs), the legal obligation to identify, locate, and evaluate all children in need of specially designed instruction--child find--should also be in the forefront. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public schools to initiate…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act allows three methods of determining whether a student qualifies for special education as a student with a specific learning disability (SLD). The first and most controversial is the Discrepancy model, which requires a significant discrepancy between the student's intellectual ability and academic…

There is often confusion about the terms used to label or describe a reading problem. Clinicians and researchers use different terminology than the schools. For example, medical professionals, psychologists, and other practitioners outside of the school often use the term "dyslexia," "reading disorder," and "specific…

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted, and in many cases exacerbated, disparities among students that result from their socioeconomic status, language background, race and ethnicity, and disability classification. Now more than ever, school systems need to understand student needs and respond with targeted supports that address these needs. One…

Students requiring Tier 2 behavioral supports frequently display behavioral deficits in multiple domains (e.g., emotional symptoms and peer problems). The Tier 2 framework developed by McDaniel, Bruhn, & Mitchell (2015a) is a responsive structure for identifying and intervening at Tier 2. This process is described with a practical case example…

This article provides a concise and objective synthesis of the federal legislation, regulations, and agency policy interpretations; state laws; and case law, including hearing officer and complaint investigation decisions, concerning specific learning disability (SLD) identification since the 2006 IDEA regulations. The results reveal wide latitude…