Response to Intervention (RtI) has been heralded as having significant promise for improving outcomes, reducing disproportional placement in special education, and making education more culturally responsive for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) youth. This article reviews the major recent empirical and qualitative research findings with…

Parental involvement and parent-school-community partnerships receive wide acclaim for making a positive difference in the educational and transition outcomes for youth with and without disabilities. Although the impact of parental involvement in education remains undisputed, secondary education traditionally emphasizes the emerging adult…

Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004) mandates that each student with a disability has an individualized education program (IEP). The IEP serves as the curriculum roadmap for special education services. In order to generate a clear roadmap, full team communication is necessary. The purpose of this paper is to…

Assessment of students with disabilities is a critical component of special education. In addition to the complexity of assessment (e.g., high-stakes assessments, progress monitoring, diagnosis), the issue is complicated further by the use of acronyms. This can make both explaining and understanding important information related to students very…

Despite skyrocketing growth in its English Language Learner (ELL) population, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has been remarkably effective in improving outcomes for ELL students across the district. Achievement has increased, and gaps between ELL students and their native English-speaking peers have decreased. This success is intentional.…

In May 2009, the Minister for Children and Early Years, gave a commitment to Parliament to establish a working group to report on how the "Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004" (the Act) is affecting children and young people who: (1) are looked after; (2) are young carers; (3) have mental health disorders; and…

With pressures from NCLB intensifying due to low test scores in subgroups including special education, the authors' district, like many others, approached students not as individuals but as rigid categories: "poor," "Hispanic," "African American," "disabled," or "regular"--a category particularly insulting to any student not included in it by…

Between 65 and 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have mental health disorders, with some studies estimating that at least 20 percent of these youth have severe disorders that significantly impair functioning. Many of these youth are entitled to adequate and responsive mental health services through federal programs like Medicaid's…

Implementing new and advanced technology for instruction and access to the curriculum for the increasingly diverse student populations in schools can be a daunting task for even the most tech-savvy school personnel. This task can be even more challenging when devices, tools, and systems associated with assistive, or adaptive, technology are part…

Federal legislation supports instruction of content areas for all individuals, yet professionals in the field of special education are left trying to find the relevant functional outcomes for science and other content instruction for students with disabilities enrolled in a functional curriculum. Research on effective instruction for students with…

The authors encourage caution in the implementation of Response to Intervention and dispel the false hopes that Response to Intervention will solve many of education's challenges. Outlined in this article are the reasons why Response to Intervention cannot be the solution to the identification of students for special education, why it can't…

Well-trained new special education teachers know that the individualized education program (IEP) team is the crux of the special education program. The IEP team addresses academic goals and behavior intervention plans for the student but rarely addresses in depth the social environment of the school, classroom, or family. Important aspects of the…

This is a progress report on the development of the Minnesota State Individually Guided Education (IGE) Network. The foreword states that the state IGE network came into being in July of 1973 in response to a need for the continuing awareness, implementation, and refinement of IGE on a statewide basis. Section 1 is an introduction which explains…

The emergence of the standards-based reform movement has raised a number of issues related to the design of educational programs for students with severe disabilities, and a debate has arisen that presents an "either/or" choice between the general education curriculum and an ecological curricular framework that has traditionally guided…

It is essential that children who are deaf-blind have learning experiences that improve their quality of life. Unfortunately, even when educational teams work together to create individualized education programs, these students do not always have full and equal opportunities to learn. This issue of "Practice Perspectives" describes the basics of…