Special education leaders need to be aware of long-standing general regulatory requirements under [image omitted]504 for which school districts are often vulnerable. Special education leaders also have to keep current on recent legal developments for "[image omitted]504-only" students, including the effects of the Americans with…

Including students in the general education classroom successfully requires multiprofessional coordination. However, given the well-documented barriers to successful collaboration, special educators in the inclusive model face a task that can be overwhelming. Research has shown that effective communication is one of the biggest hurdles in the…

Almost 50 years ago, while President of CEC, Frances Connor delivered a presidential address entitled "The Sword and the Spirit." She called for five revolutions. The first revolution called for increasing the quantity and quality of special education teachers. The second stated that "special education depends upon an intensive…

Despite the fact that China has a deep-rooted history of sympathetic attitudes toward individuals with disabilities, and has begun to serve individuals with disabilities in their public schools, Special Education in China today is much like it was in the United States prior to the implementation of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of…

Motivated by the multiple-measures clause of recent federal policy regarding student eligibility for alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MASs), this study examined how scores or combinations of scores from a diverse set of assessments predicted students' end-of-year proficiency status on statewide achievement…

Students with disabilities are included in the nearly two million students who attend school online (Queen & Lewis, 2011). Like many families, parents of children with disabilities are increasingly considering online schools as an option for their child's education. Online schools may be more attractive to parents of students with disabilities…

Every child is unique and learns in different ways. Some children are identified as needing special education services to support his or her learning at school. Parents can play a major role in shaping the services a child receives. This guidebook has been written for parents, guardians, and surrogate parents of a child (ages 3 to 21 or…

This issue of the Occasional Papers Series aims to draw attention to the use of storytelling as a medium for provoking dialogue about inclusive classrooms and school communities. It offers readers stories of classroom life that provide insights into understanding the complexities that make up the lives of children with disabilities, their…

English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities are a growing part of the K-12 school population and will be included in the next generation of accountability assessments, just as they are now included in state assessments. These learners have some unique characteristics and may demonstrate their knowledge and skills in particular ways because…

The author begins by stating that Mark Wolery has probably done more than anyone else to remind the field that teaching children is the most important thing practioners do in classrooms and that there is research on what good instruction looks like. However, the author asserts that he has a different take on the new (although it began "a…

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the early stages of an urban district's special education reform effort in which the entire district moved from a programme model to an integrated services delivery approach. We studied teacher and building administrator's responses garnered through focus group, individual interviews and observations at five…

The article by Dixon, Eusebio, Turton, Wright, and Hale is entitled "Forest Grove School District v. T.A. Supreme Court Case: Implications for School Psychology Practice." Its implications are that a "comprehensive evaluation" under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires assessment of the child's…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not the implementation of special education graduates' secondary transition plans by a team of supporters such as teachers, parents, administrators, and postsecondary mentors were well-constructed and in alignment with the graduates' high school curriculum and intended postsecondary goals, as…

In an effort to find evidence of the effectiveness of an accommodation which students with reading based disabilities are allowed to use on state assessments, a group of 11 fifth graders identified as having a reading based disability and having at least one reading goal in their Individual Education Programs (IEP) were given a series of short…

In education today there is a heightened emphasis on teacher accountability for improving student outcomes. The law requires that in order for a student to qualify as a student with a disability, the child's IEP team must ensure that the child's problem is not due to poor instructional programming. Therefore, the general education teacher is…