The number of children with ASDs quadrupled between 2000-2001 and 2009-2010, from 93,000 to 378,000. More children with ASDs are being served in public school systems. Due process hearings and cases involving students with ASDs represent the most rapidly growing area of litigation in special education. Special education administrators' knowledge…

Considerable debate exists about the failure of the federal government and the states to fully fund the special education mandates that have been placed into law and further expanded by case law. Work in local school districts is increasingly affected by the deliberate decisions that have created legal requirements for districts to provide…

Since 1990, Vermont legislation has required all schools to establish an Educational Support System (ESS) that provides a comprehensive set of supports and services designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities as well as those at risk of school failure. Given the need to promote the success of an increasingly heterogeneous group of…

Although special education services for children age three through five have been part of the IDEA mandate for nearly 20 years, until recently relatively little attention has been given to the expenditures related to these programs and to what these funds buy in terms of the mix of general and special education classroom and related services.…

A survey of 1,042 special educators found that disability severity and number of students served in the classroom were the variables that most affected caseloads in special education. Educators spent most of their time instructing, but also spent time doing behavior management, case management, and individualized education program development.…

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 109,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. ASHA's mission is to ensure that all people with speech, language, and hearing disorders have access to quality…

Physical therapy in school settings focuses on outcomes and is based on meeting the educational needs of the child or student. Despite the expansion in delivery models beyond direct one-to-one intervention, and the use of multiple team members, to achieve outcomes for students in educational environments, there continue to be shortages of physical…

District and building-level administrators are often responsible for the hiring and supervising of related services personnel. Thus, a deeper understanding of the personnel issues that exist in the related services disciplines becomes important. What we know about the supply and demand, professional preparation, and certification and licensure of…