The environment shapes the foundation of healthy development and learning. The aim of this colloquium is to share the authors' recent research efforts to center children as necessary codesign partners in their built learning environments. To do this, the authors believe that it is important to reposition preschool inclusion as a bottom-up, or…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) allows alternate pathways for school districts to identify and classify students with a specific learning disability (SLD). Response to Intervention (RtI) is one of the frameworks schools can use when eliminating the use of the discrepancy model. The premise of RtI posits that…

The purpose of this document is to provide information and resources on special education for charter schools and charter school authorizers. The information in this report should not be relied upon as a comprehensive or definitive response to specific legal situations involving special education compliance. This report includes a: (1) Minnesota…

Disproportionality and inequity exist in the special education services that U.S. children receive based on factors such as race, geographic location, and resources of the school system. Overrepresentation and underrepresentation are both prevalent issues and can vary by region or school district and are likely due to multiple factors. Although…

The State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) is an important tool for states to assess local education agency (LEA) implementation of IDEA. However, reviewing LEA performance on the SPP/APR indicators must not be the only tool. This Fast Five introduces five factors (plus one!) other than the SPP/APR indicators that states should…

This dissertation research is an exploratory multiple-case study of special education transition program structures in three virtual public charter schools in a southern state in the United States. Virtual public charter schools are extensions of public school systems or districts that are required to comply with state and federal-mandated special…

Collaboration with caregivers and between disciplines and agencies is a recommended practice in the field of early intervention and early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) as well as required by federal legislation for young children with disabilities. Review of relevant literature suggests that collaboration entails a complex set of…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has undergone revisions roughly every 5 years since inception. Despite these modifications, the academic and social outcomes for students with disabilities lag behind those of their regular education peers. Results-Driven Accountability (RDA) was initiated to improve special education outcomes and…

The current implementation fidelity narrative in education is one written in federal legislation (e.g., ESSA, 2015; IDEA, 2004) and peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Chu et al., 2020; Noell et al., 2014). While teachers represent a significant force for the implementation of evidence-based practices in schools, their experiences and wisdom are often…

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…

This article delineates the four successive dimensions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's (IDEA) central obligation of "free appropriation public education" that the courts have developed thus far: (a) procedural, (b) substantive, (c) incomplete implementation of the last Individualized Education Program (IEP), and (d)…

This article examines current technology-aided instruction and intervention (TAII) available for autistic transition-age youth (TAY) in the United States and existing policies that may support or hinder the delivery of these interventions. Specifically, we focus on policies that might influence the delivery of TAII to autistic TAY. After a careful…

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…

In the U.S. education system, students of color experience multiple forms of marginalization at the intersection of markers of difference. These injustices manifest in multiple forms, such as higher rates of inappropriate referrals to special education, misidentification, conferring stigmatizing labels, and subsequently placing students of color…

"Augmentative and alternative communication" (AAC) refers to a wide variety of communication devices, systems, tools, and strategies that support or replace spoken language. Augmentative and alternative communication users represent a range of ages, abilities, and communication needs. Support for AAC often begins in the public school…