Children with disabilities and special needs make up the vast majority of those currently being adopted internationally into the United States (U.S.). China has been a leading sending country for international adoption since the 1990s and remains one of the few nations with thousands of orphaned or abandoned children, many with congenital…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of previously detained adolescents with disabilities in order to better understand the influence these experiences may have on their postsecondary outcomes. This study employed a phenomenological approach through a three interview series to further understand the lived…

Purpose: The purposes of this study were first to identify and describe transition to adulthood pathways of youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) in regards to the timing and order of transition to adulthood task completion (e.g. completing education, gaining employment, living independently, marrying/close personal relationship, and…

Since the United States' inception, the foundation of the country has been built upon inequities. From unfair assessment practices to ability tracking and arbitrary discipline, the African American/Latino K-12 educational experience has been exclusionary, subsequently paralleling the disproportionality for people of color incarcerated within the…

In 1990, The Americans with Disabilities Act ruled that, regardless of age, inmates were entitled to continued special education services in correctional facilities. This qualitative case study identified perceptions of recidivism in incarcerated adolescents with special education needs. In this study the correctional education programs were…

Too often, students from communities of color experience the school system where they are routed from the doors of a schoolhouse to the doors of a prison; this phenomenon is known as the School to Prison Pipeline. In this dissertation, I explored how identity markers (e.g. race, gender, and disability) were related to education and incarceration…

The purpose of this study was to compare two groups of males in Arizona Department of Corrections (ADJC) custody with regard to three factors. The first group consisted of youth sentenced to ADJC who later received criminal charges for which they were transferred to the adult court system, ("Transferred" group), and the second group…

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. Among those incarcerated are juveniles. However, the higher the education obtained, the less likely it is that those previously incarcerated will reoffend. Legislation such as No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act set the structure…