Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities face barriers to accessing sex education, including a lack of professional ownership over providing sex education. Limited information exists regarding educator training background, funding structure, and who they serve. We interviewed 58 sex educators of individuals with intellectual…

In September 2022, CLE began a multi-phase study on the feasibility of creating a centralization entity (Educational Service Agency) to coordinate special education across New Orleans' decentralized system of autonomous charter schools. This executive summary of the study examines the interests and concerns of the New Orleans school community and…

Appropriately identifying children with disabilities--in ways that are timely, comprehensive, and accurate--is critical for ensuring that learners receive the supports they need to meet early milestones and succeed in school. In turn, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) charges states and school districts with: (1) finding all…

Occupational therapy practitioners (OTP) work with individuals with diagnoses that are subject to stigma including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While measures have been developed to broadly assess implicit attitudes toward disability, bias toward ADHD specifically has not been examined in individuals who work with this…

Educators and families develop individualized education programs (IEPs) to address unique needs of individual students with disabilities. Addressing all student needs is critical to ensuring students receive a free and appropriate public education. To understand how IEP teams address the needs of students with complex support needs, we examined…

The pathway for post-diagnostic services for autism tends to be complex, heterogeneous, and fraught with delays. This situation has repercussions for families' experience with care systems, the quality of early interventions, and family adjustment. To date, studies of parents' point of view on autism services have predominantly focused on the…

Familiarity with local disability information and resources can impact the ways educators support students with disabilities and their families. We surveyed 462 educators regarding their awareness of and access to disability-related information and resources. Specifically, we examined (a) their familiarity with resources and services across…

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to discover the possible barriers to the implementation of counseling as a related service through the experiences and perceptions of special education directors, guidance counselors, and school psychologists. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is the guiding theory, as it has a direct…

We utilized a survey to explore how early childhood personnel delivered high-quality and inclusive preschool special education and related services to young children with disabilities in one U.S. Western state. We conducted quantitative analyses on 418 participants' survey responses, including t tests and Mann Whitney tests to examine differences…

S3434 was signed by Governor Murphy on June 16, 2021. It allows students who turned 21 during the 2020-2021 to continue to receive special education, related services, and transition services through at least the 2021-2022 school year. These services must be provided to those students during the 2021-2022 school year when the Individualized…

The transition from early intervention to preschool is a major early milestone for children with multiple disabilities and their families and the first of many transitions they will experience across the lifespan. However due to the low-incidence nature of multiple disabilities, this group has been largely left out of the literature surrounding…

Introduction: Children with optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) frequently have co-occurring developmental disorders, and children with both visual impairments and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have complex educational needs. Research Question: Do the individualized education programs (IEPs) of children with visual impairment and ASD comport with…

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a worldwide disruption of education service systems. A significant gap has emerged in understanding the impact of these changes to both educational services and child development. The current qualitative study presents interviews with early childhood educators and parents to capture their experiences with…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) both require that educators utilize instructional practices based on evidence in the literature when providing special education and related services to students with disabilities. This article provides a description of a special type of literature…

Objectives: Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities often require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to fully meet their academic and social potential. AAC supports can be challenging for some educators to implement. This study sought to bring light to these challenges. Methods: A qualitative interview approach was…