The increasing prevalence of diagnoses for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), now one in 68 children according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), presents a number of policy implications. In particular, many of these children become eligible for special education services under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Given…

This research contrasts two urban school districts that serve similar populations yet vary notably with respect to the provision of speech and language services. The results suggest that variation in the provision of speech-language services is driven by district-level variations in budgetary and legal contexts as well as procedural differences.…

This study focused on federal policy for education of students with disabilities. Assuming that principals occupy a pivotal policy implementation role, this analysis centered on selected elementary principals' discourse about Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) clause in the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The study…

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…

The present study sought to determine to what extent vestiges of the dual system of educating students with and without disabilities persist and how they undermine the implementation and sustainability of inclusive education. We investigated how prior experiences with segregation shape administrators' thinking and school policies and practices…

This study analyzes parent and professional organizations' effectiveness in national special education policy from 1975 to the present. Of specific interest are the relationships between groups' policy victories, how groups construct their political messages, and organizational characteristics. The research is significant in that it is one of the…

There is a paucity of research related to the implementation of the procedural regulations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in public schools. Section 504 is a general education civil rights law designed to provide access for students with disabilities. This study presents data from a survey that was distributed to a range of…

New accountability requirements contain provisions that mandate the participation of students with disabilities in large-scale assessments and the public reporting of these students' performance along with other important educational outcomes. Discusses the technical, legal, and practical challenges to implementing the new accountability mandates.…