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…

This qualitative study examined the experiences of parents who sought inclusive education for their children with intellectual disabilities or extensive support needs. Data were collected from 33 participants in the form of narratives that emerged through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using a phenomenological methodology. Findings…

May 2020 was the 66th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka." In this case, perhaps the most important ruling of the 20th century, the Supreme Court ruled that the racial segregation of Black children in public schools was unconstitutional. In addition, the ruling in "Brown v.…

The process of providing students with disabilities access to an education that is of appropriate quality is still a relatively new endeavor. Students with disabilities benefit from the support of family, educators, and many other professionals addressing the inequality that is faced in school. Ultimately, progress has been achieved from…

In 1974, the Education for all Handicapped Protection Act was signed into law by President Gerald Ford. This law which was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, established a federal entitlement to special education for eligible students with disabilities. In 1982 and again in 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court…

Author Michael Wehmeyer began his career in special education shortly after the passage of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA). In those early days, he recounts, students with disability were mostly segregated from other children, and many of the adults…

East High School was opened in 1926 to over nine hundred students from the surrounding neighborhoods. At that time, East High School was an all-White suburban school in comparison to its identity today as the most diverse high school in the state with over forty languages and countries represented in its population. During the first decades of its…

In this article, I propose a critical, alternative framing of Black boys, asserting that Black boys are vulnerable resources rather than problems. Black boys are susceptible to racist and ableist practices and discourses, and they deserve special protection and services in school that do not position them as "in need of repair." Despite…

In this paper I study the impact of court-mandated school desegregation by race on student suspensions and special education classification. Simple descriptive statistics using student enrollment and outcome data collected from the largest school districts across the country in the 1970s and 1980s show that Black-White school integration was…

Decades after the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" unanimous decision to desegregate schools, the ideology of Black people having equal educational opportunities has not been realized; Black people continue to lag in educational attainment. However, the inequalities in life experiences between Black and White people limit the…

The demand of providing adequate services for students with disabilities has evolved over the years requiring districts to provide free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. As districts are held increasingly accountable for meeting these demands, the roles and responsibilities of the school principal has become…

Through the juxtaposition of 2 recent Supreme Court actions--"Allston v. Lower Merion County School District" (2015) and "Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District" (2017)--this article argues that special education is a neoliberal property that works to recruit disability through scientific-juridical qualifications of…

In the more than 60 years since the "Brown v. Board of Education" ruling, the United States has been struggling to assure educational equality for all learners. This article will review how attempts at equality such as accountability and standardization movements have failed to close opportunity gaps for vulnerable and marginalized…

In early care and education (ECE), including early intervention and early childhood special education (EI/ECSE), professionals regularly express a love for the individualized nature of the work with children and families as a large reason why they enter this workforce. This article aims to provide ECE professionals supporting young children with…

In this collaborative sense-making of mentorship and interconnected guidance for education research, two Black women academics in special education offer lessons learned from their sustained dialogues with each other, other Black women, and with Black and endarkened feminists' texts. The authors reflect on how traditional approaches to academic…