Despite federal regulations around making determinations about special education eligibility, the system is vulnerable to biases influencing decision making. The present study investigated the impact of bias on special education eligibility decision making. The research questions ascertained whether manipulation of a single piece of information in…

Background: People with learning disabilities have the right to choose where they live. However, evidence suggests people's choices are limited due to a shortage of housing. Methods: 200 Lives was a mixed methods research project, which evaluated supported living and residential care for people with learning disabilities in England; 107 people…

This think piece argues for a novel qualitative methodology that permits social justice researchers, including National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination students, to highlight the profound affects of exclusionary school practices for parents of children with SEN and/or disabilities (SEND). Such children are proportionately effected…

This book presents a framework for addressing intersectionality within educational spaces to combat the cumulative effects of systemic marginalization due to race, gender, disability, class, sexual orientation, and other identity-based labels. Readers can use the framework to consider the impact of identities that individuals adopt or are…

Deaf-Latinx K-12 students are the largest group of racially minoritized students in the US, lagging far behind the complimentary proportion of Deaf-whites in obtaining degrees. Educational institutions have sustained and reproduced privilege and inequality patterns. This article explores how using Deaf-Latinx Critical Theory (Deaf-LatCrit) in…

Clinicians uniformly recommend accommodations for college students with learning disabilities; however, we know very little about which accommodations they select and the validity of their recommendations. We examined the assessment documentation of a large sample of community college students receiving academic accommodations for learning…

Students with print disabilities continue to face inaccessible information and information technologies in higher education institutions despite federal and state legislation and local policies. Although most individuals responsible for making their course materials accessible often express support for the egalitarian principles of such policies,…

An educator criticizes the appeals process provided for in the 1981 British Education Act for parents of children with special educational needs. Noted are discriminatory features of the provision, a common lack of independence by the hearing committee, and the limited authority of the Independent Panel of Special Education Experts. (DB)

Federal law (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, P.L. 101-336) and state law concerning the capacity to consent demonstrate the many standards used to determine the severity of retardation and whether a mentally challenged person has the capacity to consent. This area of social policy is fascinating because it adds another layer of debate to…

The Moral and Social Action Interdisciplinary Colloquium (MOSAIC) is an international multidisciplinary network of scholars working within the fields of the philosophy, psychology and sociology of moral development, moral education and moral thought. MOSAIC runs an annual conference, traditionally in June or July. This conference attracts an…

A comprehensive study that is also practical and realistic, "New Directions in Special Education" outlines principles for decision-making about special education at every level--from the family to the classroom, school, and district--and for state and federal policy. With this volume, leading scholar and disability advocate Thomas Hehir…

This paper explores the detrimental effects that assumptions and labels have caused people with mental retardation and examines the concept of changing societal attitudes. The paper points out that: mental retardation has often been regarded not simply as one aspect of a person's life, but as engulfing the person's whole life and becoming that…

This collection of information pieces is intended to help school personnel make better decisions regarding compliance with, first, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities and, second, with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It is stressed that some students…

The impact of a court decision (McGann vs. H&H Music) concerning reduction of employee health insurance benefits in a case of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act on college decisions regarding reduction of benefits is examined. Recommendations for college are offered. (MSE)