This guide to family-directed transition planning is intended to help parents and students with disabilities take leading roles in the process of transition from school to post-school activities. First, a letter to families examines the challenge of change and the transition process. Section 2 examines regulations that affect transition planning,…

This report discusses findings from the Current Population Survey of 1998 that found Americans with disabilities are less than half as likely as their counterparts to own a computer, and they are about one-quarter as likely to use the Internet. Others findings indicate: (1) among persons 65 years of age or older, only one-tenth of those with…

This annual report focuses primarily on special education spending and services in Vermont from Fiscal Year 1990 through Fiscal Year 1998. It discusses Vermont's changes to its special education funding formula that resulted in the state providing 60 percent of special education funding to school districts. It also includes the first look at state…

This study used data from the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS) to evaluate the participation of students with disabilities in the state's comprehensive assessment system. Data on students in grades 4, 8, and 11 during the academic years 1994-1995 through 1996-1997 were collected and analyzed. Results are reported in terms…

Preschool children need instruction in movement in order to become skillful movers. A child-centered approach emphasizes activities that are child-initiated and teacher-facilitated, enabling each child to achieve specific goals and objectives. Many teacher strategies and classroom routines support the child-centered approach. As an alternative to…

This article examines issues in the education of culturally different students in the nation's schools. The first section examines factors underlying the future education of this population including demographic increases in numbers of culturally diverse students in the schools, historic discrimination against these groups, and…

This paper provides an overview of the Maine Department of Education's "Foundations of Inclusive Education," a guide for early childhood professionals, families, and educators on implementing inclusive education for school and preschool children. A basic premise of the guide is that inclusive education is not a separate initiative for…

This paper reports on a cost analysis of Kings Park (New York) Central School District's expenditures for special education services and relates that analysis to a comparison of proposed models of service delivery. The first section of the paper reviews the current status of New York State's initiative to document educational outcomes for special…

The Qualitative Studies section of the Proceedings contains the following 14 papers: "Disabling or Enabling? Reading Bodies, Technologies, and the Borg of Star Trek" (Mia Consalvo); "Inverted Pyramids Versus Hypertexts: A Qualitative Study of Readers' Responses to Competing Narrative Forms" (Robert Huesca, Brenda Dervin, John…

This report discusses the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that require states to develop alternate assessments for students with disabilities who cannot participate in large-scale assessment programs. The report also profiles five state alternate assessment practices that have been developed or are emerging and…

This booklet is designed to help parents of infants and toddlers with disabilities in Colorado prepare for the development of their Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). Pages are provided for parents to fill out with: (1) the child's present levels of development; (2) family resources, priorities, and concerns; (3) outcomes and goals for the…

This paper discusses the outcomes of a study that examined social skills as a contextual factor of African American male students with and without behavior problems. Forty-four African American male students (grades 3-5) reported three placement designations: mainstreamed with learning disabilities, mainstreamed with emotional disturbances, or…

This paper discusses the outcomes of a study that examined local response to the implementation of the least restrictive environment (LRE) provision for preschool children with disabilities within two counties in New York State during the 1994-97 school years. Open-ended interviews were conducted with four groups in each county: Committee on…

This guide is designed to assist districts in developing and implementing Curriculum-Based Vocational Assessment (CBVA) as an integral part of the career/vocational program for students with disabilities. The document begins with a User's Guide that describes each part of the guide and makes suggestions for its use. Part 1 explains what CBVA is…

This manual describes the rationale, use, and validity of the Temperament and Atypical Behavior Scale (TABS), a norm-referenced measure of dysfunctional behavior appropriately used with infants and young children between the ages of 11 and 71 months. TABS is intended to identify children who are developing atypically or are at risk for atypical…