Explicit instruction is a high-leverage practice for special education and is associated with improved learning for students with disabilities (Hughes et al., 2019). The high-leverage practices are 22 critical practices in special education that are effective for improving outcomes for a broad range of students with and at risk for disabilities…

Self-determination is a predictor of positive in- and post-school outcomes, including access to general education, competitive employment, and community participation. Emerging research has focused on promoting self-determination for all students given alignments with college and career readiness frameworks and equity-based education. However, it…

Executive functions, which begin developing in early childhood, are necessary for the tasks of daily life, such as decision making and planning. Despite their early development, often without teaching, many teens with disabilities need explicit instruction to acquire and apply executive functions each day. Gaps in executive functions directly…

Teaching requires attention to individual student needs by providing both adequate challenge and sufficient support to help students successfully gain academic skills (Shurr et al., 2019). The learning stages framework divides typical learning into four distinct stages: acquisition, fluency, maintenance, and generalization (Collins, 2012; Haring…

All students go through a variety of transitions throughout their life (i.e., middle school to high school, high school to the workforce). However, students with disabilities tend to experience disparities compared to their peers without disabilities in regard to in-school and postschool outcomes. One way to enhance outcomes for students with…

Self-determination can support student mental health, particularly related to internalizing behaviors, because self-determined actions enable self-motivating consequences (i.e., self-efficacy). Self-regulation--a subset of self-determination--is often utilized by interventionists to improve self-determination and student behavior. Self-regulation…

Community-based instruction (CBI) is one type of community experience in which students with disabilities work toward instructional goals while engaged in activities occurring in a natural environment outside of a typical school setting (Hoover, 2016; Rowe et al., 2015). Educators who implement CBI capitalize on their students' time in the…

Although the co-teaching service delivery model is the most commonly used service delivery model used to support co-teachers in the inclusive setting (Cook et al., 2017), research indicates that co-teachers may need support in order to increase the use of specialized instruction to meet the individual needs of students with disabilities (Scruggs…

Behavior contracts, also known as contingency contracts, have been used as a behavioral strategy for decades (Allen et al., 1993; Bowman-Perrott et al., 2015). Originating from the field of applied behavioral analysis, behavior contracts define behavioral expectations and specify contingent rewards for displaying target behaviors (Cooper et al.,…

Students with intellectual disabilities are among the least likely students to spend a significant amount of time in general education classrooms. When they are included, they may spend their time on non-academic learning experiences. Universal Design for Learning is a lesson planning framework that can guide teachers in inclusive lesson planning.…

Physical activity (PA) promotion for children with disabilities tends to be less of a priority in physical education teacher education programs when compared with a focus on motor and sport-specific skills and strategies. As a result, physical education teachers tend to have less competence in promoting PA of students with disabilities, leaving…

Although most students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) receive instruction in the general education setting (U.S. Department of Education, 2018), their academic outcomes have been found to be poor. Two evidenced-based practices that improve outcomes for students with SLD are explicit instruction and cognitive and metacognitive strategy…

Adolescents with disabilities experience co-occurring mental health needs at higher rates than their peers without disabilities (Blake, 2017; Milligan et al., 2015; Poppen et al., 2016; Thornton et al., 2017). Mental health needs often become more prominent as individuals with disabilities transition from childhood to adolescence (White et al.,…

The primary message of the Supreme Court's ruling in "Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District" (hereinafter "Endrew F.," 2017) was that school districts are obligated to "offer an IEP [individualized education program] that is reasonably calculated to enable the child to make progress appropriate in light of the…

Being self-determined means acting or causing things to happen by setting and taking the steps necessary to achieve one's goals. Teaching self-determination skills has been linked to enhanced academic outcomes, improved transition knowledge and skills, employment, and increased community access. Almost every state or local education agency has…