Special education, a discipline that aims to provide specialized instruction to meet the unique needs of each child with a disability, has turned 40 years old in the United States. Ever since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142) in 1975, every state has been directed to provide a free and appropriate…

Problem solving is fundamental to psychoeducational assessment practices and generally grounded in activities related to identifying problems, developing and refining hypotheses, generating solutions, developing and implementing actions, and evaluating outcomes. While the process is central to response-to-intervention practices as well, little…

Adapted physical education (APE) is designed to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities within the least restrictive environment. Placement in the right environment can help the child succeed, but the wrong environment can create a very negative experience. This article presents a systematic approach to making decisions when…

Reviews historical trends and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, problems in the use of interdisciplinary teams, varying degrees of team member participation and satisfaction, concerns about the team decision-making process, and implications of the special education team mandate for the training of gerontology professionals. (SK)

The article focuses on the provisions of Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) which involve nondiscriminatory assessment procedures. The author proposes the use of nondiscriminatory decision-making processes using data obtained from intervention effectiveness statistics rather than norm referenced tests. (PHR)

The manual for due process hearing officers in Utah provides information on prehearing activities, hearing activities, decision making processes, and final reporting on hearings regarding conflicts or disagreements between the parents and the school district concerning the most appropriate educational program for the handicapped child. An…

The author considers fundamental economic considerations which underlie decisions concerning individual education programs (IEPs) as mandated by P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) for handicapped students. (SB)

In light of recent legislation, school psychologists, administrators, and teachers are required to decide if handicapped pupils' educational needs can be met in regular classrooms. Information that may be used to derive this placement decision is examined. Decision-making guidelines are proposed. (Author)

Comments on an article by Dunst and Bruder. Twenty years ago, amendments to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 99-457, 1986) included language that required each state early intervention system to ensure that families had access to a case manager. The article by the authors and the study conducted as part of the Research and…

The book of readings is intended for use as supplementary information for a program of workshops on training surrogate parents (focusing on the concepts, attitudes, and skills necessary for an individual to successfully represent exceptional children in the educational decision making process). Considered in the five sections are the following…

Intended for state education agency personnel and others concerned with implementation of P.L. 94-142 (Education for All Handicapped Children Act), the booklet presents summaries and findings of three research projects on individualized education programs (IEPs) and the planning team (PT) process. Reported on are the following three studies: a…

Three studies were conducted in a large urban school district to determine how well the requirements of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) are being met. Questions regarding the referral process addressed the procedures of the referral committee. The appraisal process was evaluated in terms of characteristics of children…

A social anthropologist suggests that other decision making models besides the consensual one (which assumes that the public behaves in accordance with values and attitudes) should be adopted by education as a result of shrinking resources, and discusses approaches to making decisions resulting from P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped…

The authors suggest that efforts to comply with the protection in evaluation procedures provisions of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) have been characterized by attempts to identify a single fair test for use with specific groups of minority children, and that such efforts will not result in improved efforts to…

Observation of 26 initial placement/individual education plan (IEP) conferences for elementary age learning-disabled children found minimal parent participation during the conferences, but parents reported, in postconference interviews, satisfaction with the conferences. Results are related to the intent of P.L. 94-142, the Education for All…