This report presents findings from an investigation of the perceptions, hopes, and fears of educators as they work toward including students with disabilities in Minnesota's High Standards. The findings are from questionnaires and interviews that were conducted from January to March 1999, with 90 educators across all grade levels from ten schools…

This study surveyed 202 state-level disability organizations concerning their capacity, policy, and practices for working with youth with disabilities who are homeless, runaway, or at risk for running away. Major findings indicated: (1) limited awareness existed of the relationship between disabilities and runaway and homeless youth; (2) only 26…

This guide is designed to provide teachers in King County, Washington, with a single resource for much of the information needed to help students with disabilities transition from school to adult life and to make informed employment decisions. It begins by providing an overview of federal and state regulations that affect students with…

The field of early childhood special education (ECSE) is currently struggling with questions about relative effectiveness of different types of early intervention and how to provide children and their families with services that facilitate optimal development in inclusive settings. This chapter describes the history of ECSE and discusses recent…

This document is intended to provide educators with guidance and strategies to increase the participation of families from diverse backgrounds in mediation programs to settle differences about educational programs for children with disabilities. Introductory information discusses what mediation is, who mediators are, a typical mediation process,…

This bulletin provides information to clarify for Missouri school districts when Prior Written Notice is to be provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, what the content of a Prior Written Notice is to be, and in which circumstances procedural safeguards for children and parents must be provided. Missouri school districts are…

The five bibliographies included here were selected from those of a graduate-level class in methodology for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). They were selected based on the quality of research and writing, interest the topic might have for other English-as-a-second-language teachers, and student permission. They include:…

The National Library Service (NLS) is developing a digital talking book and Braille book system for use by the blind and physically handicapped community. The following elements drive the design of the program: NLS offers a free library service; NLS is consumer-driven; NLS pays no royalties to copyright holders; the program is accessible to a wide…

The 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) included provisions specifying that states and districts must include students with disabilities in their assessment systems with reasonable accommodations, that states report on the performance of students with disabilities with the same detail and frequency they report on…

If the lives of adults with disabilities are any measure of the impact of decades of special education, there are serious problems that must addressed. The employment rate among adults with disabilities, for instance, remains low. If a group of students choose paid employment as a goal for adult life, would not those same students want their…

The availability of assistive technology (AT) can make a tremendous difference in the ability of an individual to work, even when that individual has a severe disability. In the work context, AT serves several functions: it may make it possible to participate in an education or training program; it may make it possible to get prepared to leave the…

According to state-reported data at www.ideadata.org, approximately 90,000 or 1.5% of all students with disabilities were publicly placed in private day and residential settings in 2004. All categories of disabilities are represented by these publicly placed students to some extent. However, the following categories were represented at a higher…

The purpose of this document is to identify the major issues related to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and state education agency (SEA) general supervision roles and responsibilities in implementing IDEA by building on the work of the MPRRC through an analysis of information obtained from interviewing representatives of both the BIA and five SEAs.…

Reflecting the need for updated, comprehensive and accurate information, the Special Education Expenditure Project was included in a series of studies mandated by Congress in 1997 to measure and evaluate the impact of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). SEEP was the first comprehensive, nationally representative study…

In the United States, education is not only free and public, but it is compulsory in all continental United States and in its principal outlying parts. The aim in this study is to present in a summary manner what appear to be the most interesting legislative features of compulsory education systems in the various States: (1) When did the States…