In this article we propose a model of collaboration for school teams as a guide to the provision of effective, individualized and culturally responsive school-based mental health supports. When school teams embark on this process, they must be ready to provide a continuum of care within a comprehensive plan. Collaboration is essential when working…

The Model Classroom Initiative (MCI) was conceptualized to improve learning and IEP goal attainment while decreasing maladaptive behaviors in specialized instructional program classrooms. The MCI Coaching Model was utilized to assist teachers with the implementation of MCI components in three specialized instructional program classrooms, all of…

Some of the most critical soft skills (i.e., nontechnical, interpersonal skills that impact personal performance in an environment such as school or the workplace) that students must acquire as they mature are the skills to act or cause things to happen in their lives. Providing instruction to increase these skills--all part of…

Special education team members have shown an inability to write rigorous individualized education program (IEP) goals that meet students' needs. Researchers have focused on special education team members' ability to write IEP goals, and the phenomenon continues to be a vital concern. This basic qualitative study was conducted to examine the…

This paper explores methods by which the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) development process can be improved through the use of systems-based thinking, specifically through the use of Gittell's (2016) Relational Coordination Model. IEP development meetings have been described as meaningless rituals where parents often leave feeling ostracized…

As schools seek to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between special educators and students at the intersections of learning and language, the case described in this article illustrates how educators can continue to apply one of the key tenets of special education, the strengths-based approach. The hegemony of English has become so pervasive…

This study investigated interactions between self-efficacy and IEP quality. Pre-service teachers in two similar student cohorts completed self-efficacy surveys for multi-tiered interventions and wrote IEPs using data for a child with severe disabilities. Researchers scored IEP quality using the "IEP Quality Inventory," rating quality of…

One major responsibility of K-12 teachers in United States public schools is to meet the needs of disabled students. While many preservice and in-service teacher training programs present educators with information related to service delivery as outlined in a student's Individualized Education Program or 504 plan, they rarely address how to talk…

Existing approaches for training paraeducators rely heavily on intensive one-to-one coaching and may not be feasible in practice. In this study, we test a tiered training model in which all paraeducators first received group training, and then coaching was provided only for the subset who did not meet performance criteria after group training.…

Little is known about how the expansion of state pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs affects low-income children with disabilities in Head Start. Using almost 30 years of administrative data of all Head Start programs and a differences-in-differences design, this study tests the possibility that, as state pre-k differentially draws relatively more…

Policy and legislation internationally advocates curriculum access and inclusion for pupils with special educational needs. The individual education plan (IEP) process, which focuses on individual planning for pupils with special educational needs, has been mandated as a means of achieving this goal in many countries. As a concept it has been…

In this dissertation, I explore, through qualitative means, the perceptions of parents related to discourse (what is said and not said) within formalized and required processes of special education. These processes are federal requirements that parents of children with disabilities or suspected disabilities encounter as their children progress…

Effective collaboration is associated with positive outcomes for students and is a key component of equitable educational opportunities. There are challenges to effective collaboration, however, as our understanding of it differs based on the various definitions in the literature. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify the common…

The objective of this study is to analyse different models of educational support that are used in schools with public funding from the perspective of support teachers, counsellors and members of management teams. Participants were 79 professionals from the three areas mentioned above. The methodological approach was a phenomenological qualitative…

The price of not being English proficient in the United States is costly. A study using 2000 census data showed that people who were not English proficient experienced lower earnings than those who spoke only English (Community and Regional Development Estate, 2005). The cost of being a non-proficient English speaker has the potential to decrease…