A shortage of certified teacher candidates nationwide is especially challenging in the field of special education. U.S. rural school districts are even more impacted due to limited access to universities because of geographical distance. In this program description, we look at the University Louisville's fully online special education alternative…

Teaching children with individualized education programs (IEPs) can pose challenges such as determining materials to use, managing the materials, and keeping data organized. This paper reviews those challenges that teachers (e.g., general and special education) encounter and describes the necessity for systematic data collection. Guidelines are…

Families of children with disabilities have unique relational needs that may be addressed by practitioners in the field of family science. In this article, we discuss how relational feminism was used as an approach to working with families in a rural Special Education program to facilitate success for very young students with neurodevelopmental…

The majority of students with exceptional needs receive most of their formal education in general education or inclusive classrooms. These students often need a variety of accommodations to ensure their success with the general education curriculum. The purpose of this article is to explore accommodation approaches and strategies for teaching…

This article provides an overview of general and special education in Hungary, including training and teacher preparation. We examine trends towards inclusion and the challenges of training general education teachers to support students with disabilities. We also outline the process of qualifying for special education and explore teacher…

Researchers in special education have been developing a knowledge base of evidence-based practices that improve the outcomes of students with disabilities. Unfortunately, filtering that knowledge into classrooms implemented by special education teachers has been a challenge. In "The Essentials of Special Education Research," Andrew M.…

This article is part of a special LDRP research-to-practice series introducing key concepts to enable special education practitioners and other nonresearchers to be more informed research consumers. In the article, we explore how social validity is assessed in special education research and how to interpret social validity assessments. Rather than…

Mixed-reality simulation (MRS) is an innovative and promising approach in teacher preparation programs. While the use of MRS as a practice-based learning opportunity (PLO) in special education teacher preparation and professional development continues to grow, integrating this novel technology can be daunting for faculty members and school…

This paper tells the story of how one school leveraged the expertise of a family to build an equitable collaboration that transformed the educational experiences of Jake, a fifth-grade student with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Personal accounts from 3 teachers, 2 administrators, and a parent illustrate the power of leaning into…

The need for teachers who have both the knowledge and skills to teach students in special education, especially students who are emergent bilinguals, is more critical today than ever before. Assumptions about the assurances outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have led to practices that have limited the scope of…

Parental choice remains a central theme in education policy in England. Parents have the right to choose how their children are educated. For some families this choice is surrendered, with volition and intention, to their local authority which allocates school places after parents, statutory guardians and families have made their decisions. Where…

Administrators face multiple challenges in effectively managing special education programs and services. These challenges include communication failures between stakeholders, inconsistency in implementing policies, difficulty in collaborating with multiple personnel throughout a district, and inefficiencies in implementing special education…

This article discusses special education teachers' initial training within public policies establishing teaching students with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream classrooms. Based on the question of how special education teachers' initial training in Chile is responding to inclusive education policy regulations, we describe…

In Turkey, the special education population has steadily increased since 2006. By generating a 16-year period of data obtained from the National Education Statistics (NES) published annually by the Presidency of Strategy Development of the Ministry of National Education, we synthesize the gender odds ratios and trends by special education…

The purpose of this article is to address the urgency of creating an innovative learning environment in marginalized K-12 special education classrooms in the United States. This article considers the following topics: (a) the definition of creativity and innovation; (b) the importance of innovative learning environments, (c) key conditions and…