Background: The global discourse on higher education underscores its pivotal role in personal development, societal progress and economic prosperity. However, actual implementation and practices within universities have not kept pace, and students with intellectual disability still struggle, as their journey towards accessing and succeeding in…

People with disabilities have been historically marginalised and consistently underrepresented at all levels of education. In the U.S., the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) in the 1970s changed the landscape for primary and secondary education, increasing access for many students. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was…

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (DDA) appears to offer powerful remedies to students who have been refused enrolment, excluded after enrolment or denied educational opportunities or benefits because of their disability. The Act prohibits discrimination on the ground of disability in the protected area of education and obligates…

The Commonwealth of Australia (2016) inquiry into access to learning for students with disability received several submissions on gatekeeping practices in Australian schools, resulting in minimised school enrolment and reduced participation in classrooms. The inquiry also received reports of the use of restrictive practices such as restraint and…

In mid-March 2020, the emergence of COVID-19 throughout the United States led to programmatic changes at most higher education institutions, including those involved in implementing model demonstration projects known as Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disability (TPSID) projects. This Insight Brief describes…

The evolution of education has provided families an increased opportunity to participate in selecting their children's education. With charter schools, school voucher programs, and inter-district choice, a number of states have steered away from traditional school enrollment structures, offering families more flexibility to choose schools that…

The relationship between charter schools and school integration has been complicated from the start. This report analyzes charter school policies and enrollment trends in each state to attempt to answer the fundamental question, How well do states support integration in charter schools? The centerpiece of the analysis is a series of state…

Children with disabilities are considered to be the group most excluded from basic education. While disability remains the strongest barrier to accessing education, studies have shown that appropriate policies can help to reduce barriers to education. This paper examines the determinants of school status for children with disabilities in four…

The New Hampshire Department of Education's (NH DOE) Bureau of Career Development (BCD) realized that students experienced inequitable access to career and technical education (CTE), with evidence suggesting that geographic location of high schools and CTE centers played a key role in driving inequitable access. To better understand the specific…

The full financial impact of COVID-19 is now unfolding for school districts, and it is a story of much more than PPE, hand sanitizer, and laptops. Looking ahead at the bigger picture, we see that the magnitude of cost pressures to come will far outweigh even the costs that districts have incurred to date. Particularly for large, urban school…

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act prioritizes the needs and barriers of vulnerable youth, including students experiencing homelessness. Students experiencing homelessness are more likely to experience trauma and feel unsettled, move frequently and be highly mobile. Accordingly, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and Youth Program has guided…

Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts (PA PKC) is a state-funded prekindergarten program for 3- and 4-year-old children to help them gain school readiness skills. The goal of PA PKC is to help reduce educational disparities by providing high quality prekindergarten for children who lack opportunities or reside in environments that place them at risk of school…

Across OECD countries, there are various and diverse policy approaches in place to promote inclusive education systems for students with special education needs (SEN), understood as learning disabilities, physical impairments and disorders related to mental health. Analysing current policies in place across OECD countries and investigating…

There is no question that students who experience homelessness, like all students, are entitled to be educated. A federal law, known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, requires states to provide homeless children and youth with the same access to free appropriate public education as is available to other students. The Act also requires…

The Washington Student Achievement Council is charged with setting educational attainment goals to meet the needs of Washington's residents and its workforce. The Council is also charged with developing a ten-year Roadmap to identify key strategies for meeting those goals. In 2013, the Council created the first Ten-year Roadmap, including two…