For more than 20 years, distance education has provided an option for prospective special education teachers to achieve licensure and a graduate degree. The program began as a two-way interactive television endeavor located at area community college sites. Over time, the program evolved to include online coursework with synchronous class meetings.…

When it comes to education, parental involvement and building relationships with the school are key to success. Students with special education needs especially need the support of their parents. The Educational Diagnosticians of the Capital School District helped provide data on the parental involvement in the Individualized Education Program…

In this article, we describe the evolution of a statewide alternative teacher preparation program for teachers of students with disabilities and explain current processes to revise and expand the program to increase accessibility to teacher candidates in rural schools. We will identify important features of the program including (a) significant…

Background: Internationally, it has been recognised that parents need to advocate for their children with disabilities to receive services. However, many parents find advocacy difficult because of systemic and logistical barriers. As such, parents of children with disabilities may seek a special education advocate to help them understand their…

The Rural Teacher Residency (RTR) program prepares teachers to work in 'high need' rural schools in the northeastern United States, and specifically works to establish a counter-narrative to the commonly-held deficit lens applied to these schools and communities. Framed by theory and research on DisCrit and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), we…