Through a lens of cultural capital, this dissertation explored the complex implementation of Section 504 policy in public high schools, focused on how school-level characteristics and the state-level litigious educational environment impact the qualifying rates of 504 plans. This study of the 2017-18 school year employed data from national…

Purpose/Objectives: This study aimed to describe efforts by Minnesota public School Food Authorities (SFAs) to implement the Smart Snack regulations in secondary schools and challenges associated with implementing these regulations five years after they went into effect. Methods: Public SFAs (n=452) in Minnesota were invited to complete an online…

Purpose/Objectives: With the purpose of addressing childhood obesity, the U.S. Congress passed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act (HHFKA) 2010, which strengthened the mandate and regulations for schools to develop and implement school wellness policies (SWPs) to promote students' health. Transparency and accessibility of SWPs among schools and…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that special education students receive free appropriate public education instruction in the least restrictive environment. Special education students often receive a disproportionate number of suspensions in schools. It is the disproportionate number of suspensions received by…

The state of Texas has been cited through the U.S. Department of Education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as failing to identify students under the Child Find component of the law using Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered System of Support (RtI/MTSS). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to identify…

This column shares strategies for implementing a technology-based intervention within secondary special education transition services. "Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Youth" is a web-based job interview training that uses educational content and virtual hiring managers to help teach job interview skills. Eight support…

Our country has a digital equity crisis, with many socioeconomically disadvantaged students disproportionately experiencing significant negative consequences from the digital divide. This program evaluation sought to investigate whether the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) grant program decreases the consequences of the digital divide…

As school leaders continue to look for solutions to ongoing negative student behaviors, many schools have implemented the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework. The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework supports educators and students using positive strategies for behavior, academic, social, emotional, and…

California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) is continuing its five-year grant, "An Equitable Pathway to In-Demand STEM Careers," which began in Fall 2021 to facilitate Hispanic students' degree completion and career preparation in STEM fields. In its third year, the grant team followed the original proposal to: 1. Offer effective…

Transgender and nonbinary (collectively referred to here as "trans") students are ill-served by most school environments. They experience challenges trying to navigate institutions that, at best, are poorly designed to support them and that often work against them. Although some districts and states have developed laws and policies to…

California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) continues its five-year grant, "An Equitable Pathway to In-Demand STEM Careers," that began in Fall 2021 to facilitate Hispanic students' degree completion and career preparation in STEM fields. In the second year, the grant team has made satisfactory progress in offering summer and winter…

This qualitative case study was designed to learn more about how the practices of instructional leaders support and monitor the implementation of Individual Education Plans (I.E.P.s) and influence teaching in inclusive classroom settings. It was designed to explore a sample of general educators' and administrators' perceptions about the challenges…

The purpose of this study was to determine how school principals in the Cumberland region of Tennessee use online courses as a part of a curriculum program to help make students ready for postsecondary pursuits. The problem investigated was whether the use of online courses is meeting the college and career readiness standards in this region. The…

Effective collaboration among schools and agencies is critical to the success of pre-employment transition services (pre-ETS). We examined the views of 596 middle and high school educators regarding pre-ETS and the employment prospects of their students with disabilities. Educators overwhelmingly affirmed that youth with disabilities needed better…

This paper is a report of a cross sectional survey study of teacher readiness to implement technology initiatives in their schools. The sample of participants in the study has been comparable, with respect to gender, to national data on teachers in the United States. The technology initiatives reported are reflective of current market trends in…