This essay explores inclusive education and explains the role of United Nations for imparting it to different nations. Undoubtedly, the UN and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) strive for all children to have equitable access to education as a basic human right. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) combined with the Convention…

The Equality Act 2010 will be implemented in full in 2011, and schools in the UK will have to provide special aids or services for children with disabilities where this provision is considered reasonable. This paper reports on staff perspectives on the use and usefulness of a parental questionnaire on disability from a sample of 49 schools…

During the 2008-2009 academic school year, nearly a million (956,914) students were reported by school districts as being homeless, a 41% increase over just a 2-year period year. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of national legislative efforts to address the education of children who are homeless, with a particular…

Given federal mandates, public school districts have adopted inclusive practices with the expectation that general education teachers can accommodate students with disabilities. For teacher preparation programs to prepare future teachers for this reality, it is important to understand the composition of a "typical" general education…

Conceptualisations of disability that emphasise the contextual and cultural nature of disability and the embodiment of these within a national system of data collection present a number of challenges especially where this process is devolved to schools. The requirement for measures based on contextual and subjective experiences gives rise to…

Education reform has been on a new path over the last 15 years; a path that leads to more accountability, more choice for students and parents, highly qualified teachers, as well as, best practices in instruction. In an effort to move along the path of reform and as a result of previous reform, the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA reviewed the field…

This article discusses effective preassessment team procedures for identifying students with special needs, including collecting comprehensive information about the student, documenting the student's problems, developing specific and detailed intervention plans, identifying support personnel to help implement the intervention plan, and…

Comparison of 19 national data collection programs found significant variability in the disability categories used. Discussion focuses on issues related to improving disability identification in large-scale data collection programs and the effects of these issues on reporting policy-relevant information. (Author/DB)

This report presents the December 1, 1995 special education data collected annually by the state of Maryland as part of the state's Special Services Information System. Information is compiled on special education students ages 3-21 in all 24 local education agencies and state operated programs. Definitions of key terms used to classify student…

This brief paper analyzes the types of information about disproportionality of particular racial/ethnic groups in special education that states provided in the Biennial Performance Reports (BPRs) submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in 2002 (covering the academic years 1991-2000 and 2000-2001). A section on the study's background notes…

This research analyzes similarities and differences in how students with disabilities are identified in national databases, through examination of 19 national data collection programs in the U.S. Departments of Education, Commerce, Justice, and Health and Human Services, as well as databases from the National Science Foundation. The study found…

This brief paper summarizes information collected from state education agencies concerning: (1) state-level special education data collected by gender; and (2) gender and special education issues identified as concerns. A section on the study's background notes that about two-thirds of students receiving special education services are boys,…

States and localities face a range of issues related to English language learners (ELLs) or limited English proficient (LEP) students with disabilities, including referral and identification, service delivery, staffing, data collection and parent outreach. Much of the research has focused on the identification process and has shown that there are…

This reports offers a synthesis of the current knowledge and theoretical positions concerning the disproportionate representation of minorities in special education. It is divided into five broad sections: (1) an introduction which clarifies the terminology and purpose of the report; (2) an overview of the position of minority students in the…

This report presents the December 1, 1996 special education data collected annually by the State of Maryland as part of the its Special Services Information System. Information is compiled on special education students ages 3-21 in all 24 local education agencies and state operated programs. Definitions of key terms used to classify student…