In 2025, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) will have been the primary law driving the field of special education for 50 years. A contentious area of disagreement has been the relationship between two primary mandates of the law: the obligation of schools to provide a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) to eligible…

The author reviews the background and development of the PAC (Parallel Alternate Curriculum) Program, designed to improve the learning of all students (including learning disabled students) by helping teachers maintain them in the mainstream classroom. Adminstrative support is cited as a key element in the program's success. (CL)

The author describes his concerns over mainstreaming, especially as the practice applies to LD students. He quotes other special educators' misgivings about mainstreaming and decries the lack of long range planning in the field. (CL)

Results of a study involving 14 learning disabled students show that self-monitoring procedures are readily adaptable for use by learning disabled pupils in the regular classroom setting and that using self-monitoring procedures correctly is an important variable to consider when implementing them. (Author/CL)

Regular and special educators (N=334) identified the social skill competencies necessary for successful performance in secondary mainstream settings. Competencies fell into three major areas: appropriate work habits, respect for others and their property, and ability to follow school rules. (Author/CL)

Data do not support the findings of previous studies on the sociometric status of handicapped children in the regular classroom; i.e., LD children would rate significantly lower in terms of popularity than their peers who are non-LD. (Author)

The author considers the future of learning disabilities, particularly in relation to mainstreaming, the perceptual deficit hypothesis, and the psychoneurology of learning. (SBH)

The author reviews issues related to grading learning disabled students that may cause problems between special and regular education teachers. He suggests that too many regular teachers have confused and arbitrary grading policies and that a pass/fail approach may be a wiser alternative. (CL)

The sociometric standing of 42 primary-aged learning disabled students was investigated in a sparsely populated rural area where learning disabled children were mainstreamed in an elementary school in which an "open concept" delivery of services system was in operation. (Author/SBH)

Three papers present the positions of national organizations on full inclusion of students with learning disabilities in regular education classrooms, including the Learning Disabilities Association of America, Council for Learning Disabilities, and National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities. All three papers call for a continuum of…

The guest editorial by W. Cruickshank criticizes as facile the assumption that the least restrictive environment for learning disabled children is a regular classroom. (GW)

A special education administrator raises questions about separating learning-disabled students from the regular education classroom for specialized instruction, proposes strategies to accommodate learning difference and address specific learning needs in the regular instructional program, and suggests the need to reevaluate the benefits derived…

The paper questions whether the school consultation model which provides services to learning disabled students has a sound theoretical base. Included are an examination of 10 different models of consultation and their relationship to theory and a review of studies on facilitating the mainstreaming of learning disabled and other low achieving…

The author expresses concerns regarding three issues in the field of learning disabilities: (1) the nature and quality of research in this field; (2) the divisive actions of leaders in the field; and (3) issues of mainstreaming resulting in both parental and professional backlashes. (Author)

The study examined the social status of 43 elementary grade learning disabled (LD) students who, though based in special classes, joined regular classes up to 18 periods per week. Findings indicated both lower acceptance and lower rejection, suggesting that the LD students are simply not known to their regular class peers. (Author/DB)