Despite federal policy and litigation, the continued placement of students with extensive support needs (ESN) in separate classes and schools continues across the United States. Since the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), there has been a continuous stream of research regarding the positive effects of including…

Creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students with disabilities within school-based agricultural education (SBAE) is important to ensure students receive opportunities. This study explored the experiences that SBAE teachers associated with providing special education and related services for students with disabilities in all…

Since 1975, the implementation of the Least Restrictive Environment, a federal mandate of Public Law 94-142, has been historically challenging for physical educators and adapted physical educators. Confusion and misinterpretation of the law's intent, as well as competing ideologies, have perpetuated failed Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)…

Special education services provided in public schools today are rooted in the Federal Law passed in 1975 known as the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA). Since 1975 this law has undergone revisions, now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) but law provided the foundation to guarantee all public-school…

The decades-long assault on principles of special education--some knowingly, such as the regular education initiative, and some unknowingly, such as certain presumptions and practices of full inclusion--have consequences that may negatively affect the future of the field. Protracted criticisms on the character, role, and legitimacy of traditional…

The purpose of this paper is to trace the historical trajectory of special education and how societal perspectives influenced the special education movement. It aims to answer if special education and inclusion have achieved their goals for all individuals, especially those with disabilities. A review of historical trends, special education laws,…

The principal is the key element in shaping and sustaining educational programs that provide children with disabilities the opportunity to be educated in the general education setting. Federal mandates require compliance in educational services for children with disabilities. This has changed the role of principals in education. As schools strive…

The lack of clear language in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is the federal law that governs the provision of special education and related services to children with disabilities in the USA, has led to inconsistencies in school districts' decisions regarding the least restrictive environment (LRE). This uncertainty…

This case study uses an institutional ethnography approach to investigate the experiences of the parents of a son who has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as they engaged in meetings related to his progress and placement with school personnel over the course of one school year. Through an analysis of the discourse used in these meetings and…

For centuries past, children with a hearing loss were educated separately from their hearing peers. With the advent and passing of several legislative and Congressional mandates such as "The Rehabilitation Act," "The Education for all Handicapped Children Act" and "No Child Left Behind," children with a hearing loss…

It has been nearly four decades since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), yet some of the most fundamental issues still remain. Reauthorized in 1997, and again in 2004, as the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), this act requires all children with disabilities be offered educational opportunities in the…

Collaboration in education is seen as a legal mandate, best practice in teacher practice, and necessary for the inclusion of children with special needs. Over the years, there have been a number of evolutionary incarnations of the collaborative model, each possessing various ingredients identified as important, if not essential, components of a…

This article explains the impact federal legislation has on educating students with disabilities, the changing roles of physical educators and school counselors relative to educating students with disabilities, and collaborative approaches pertaining to how physical educators and school counselors can collaboratively foster successful inclusion of…

This article is an auto-ethnography detailing the lived experience of the mainstreaming, Regular Education Initiative, and inclusion movements from the teacher and administrator perspectives. The article illustrates the challenges of integrating students with disabilities in general education and the sociopolitical contexts within which this…

This qualitative case study examined how educators collaborate and coteach within an inclusive classroom. The reauthorization of the original federal disabilities education law, Public Law 94-142, known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as well as the No Child Left Behind…