This article provides a systematic and impartial analysis of the law, including hearing and review officer as well as judicial decisions, specific to the intersection of response to intervention (RTI) and school districts' ongoing affirmative obligation of child find. The results reveal that this intersection has not been the subject of…

Strain provides his perspective on four issues facing science and practice in early childhood and special education. He points to the need for (a) long-term functional research, (b) greater emphasis on the use of evidence-based programs in practice, (c) moving special education research back to the Office of Special Education Programs, and (d)…

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) discovered that infants and toddlers who were referred for Part C services and initially found ineligible for a full evaluation through screening were being re-referred and later found eligible for services at a high rate. This report presents the systematic evaluation process that TDOE's Tennessee…

This white paper explores the variation among Part C exiting categories as reported by the 50 states and Washington, D.C., using 2012-13 exiting data. Examining factors that may contribute to variation can lead to improved Part C exiting data quality within and across states. Examination of the Part C exiting data shows that 8 of the 10 categories…

Although there have been several advances in the development of evidence-based practices (EBPs) to support students with disabilities, many rural schools struggle to use EBPs. Rural schools may experience challenges that constrain their potential to provide support for the implementation of EBPs. Further, there may be a mismatch between EBPs and…

Over the past decade, there has been a movement toward increased accountability, focusing on teacher performance, in U.S. education. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss student learning objectives (SLOs) as one component of high-stakes teacher evaluation systems, within the context of learners with special needs. We describe SLOs and their…

Research in early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) is focused on identifying effective practices related to positive outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families. Individual responses to evidence-based practices are often variable, and non-responders are common. Single case research (SCR) might be…

Research in the implementation of inclusive education in international contexts shows that progress in the Global South appears to lag behind nations in the North. In this paper, I investigate this phenomenon not by associating it with regional cultural and socioeconomic resource limitations, but by reconsidering the assumptions within inclusive…

About 13 percent of children aged 3 through 21 enrolled in public schools received special education services in school year 2015-16, and about 3 percent of children from birth through age 2 received special education services. Concerns about the difficulties identifying and evaluating children for special education have been raised by the media,…

Securing rights to inclusive schooling for children with disabilities in developing nations should rest on a scaffolding of interaction between international commitments such as Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals and the disability-centric UN "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" (CRPD). To…

Consultation of the DfE's Green Paper, "Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs," provoked considerable debate among public and private sector professionals, parents and young people over the planned special educational needs reform. Since then, publication of the Children and Families Bill in 2013 indicates…

Over the past 15 years, students with disabilities have been included in the general education environment at markedly higher rates; however, their achievement is not increasing at the same pace. One reason for this lack of increased achievement may be that academic standards lay the foundation for instruction in this environment, but standards…

The reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 spurred sweeping changes for how special education students are identified in the United States. IDEA 2004 encourages schools to use Response to Intervention (RTI) as a new method for identifying special education students. As schools implement RTI, the principal…

While there is increasing international commitment to inclusive education, as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), many children remain excluded at school. One marginalised and frequently excluded group of people are people who experience disability. In the recently released first report on…

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of the English Language Learner (ELL) components of Illinois' new principal preparation legislation [Illinois Public Act 96-0903]. In 2011, Illinois passed Illinois Public Act 96-0903 creating new rules for principal preparation programs requiring institutions or organizations certifying…