Transition beyond high school for students with disabilities was introduced in education over 50 years ago. Today, it has evolved to include data collection of ongoing mandated activities and post-school outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine student transition planning components and how these related to the post-school outcome data…

This qualitative study explores the transition to kindergarten special education of four Somali autistic children in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This dissertation answers a single, two-part research question: What aspects of the transition to kindergarten process do stakeholders find facilitate the transition process? What parts of the transition do…

The Latinx population is increasing in the United States and within Higher Education. Despite this increase, there remains a lower completion rate of Latinx students completing a higher education degree. Higher education institutions have worked hard to achieve upward mobility and try to close the achievement gap by providing students with…

Some students with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD), specifically conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), characteristically display oppositional behaviors that adversely affect their academic performance and cause gaps in their learning. The problem studied was negative behaviors exhibited by students with EBD,…

This study explored special education teachers' experiences in using interactive technology to teach reading comprehension to students with Autism through an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The research question that guided this study was: How do special education teachers perceive the usefulness of interactive technology in reading…

Educators and school staff often overlook students with intellectual disabilities and students who are LGBTQ+ within public schools. They recognize even less students who identify in both these areas. The purpose of this study is to add to a small pool of research about how to best support students with intellectual disabilities who are gender…

Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) present with specific challenges in language acquisition and literacy learning. For these children, developing age-appropriate language and literacy skills is often the exception, not the rule. This study defines the complex problem of disproportionate language and literacy acquisition and…

General education teachers are increasingly expected to provide effective instruction to special education students included in their classrooms. Unfortunately, teachers are typically insufficiently prepared to provide these services/supports by their formal education or from workshop training. Moreover, ample research suggests that without local…

Together, this dissertation describes the combined importance of visuality, pedagogy, and forces like power in deaf education. It documents a multimethod qualitative research design with case study and grounded theory methods to examine conflicting issues about "how" and "why" vision is used in deaf pedagogy. Initially,…

Providing special education services for students with identified special education needs in the least restrictive environment continues to be a challenge for schools. The co-teaching model of special education service delivery provides an opportunity for students to receive individualized instruction, remediation, and practice in the general…

Obesity in the United States is becoming a problem that negatively affects the life expectancy of young children, which for the first time in history is moving in the wrong direction (Ogden et al., 2014). According to obesity trend data, obesity has tripled in children from 5% in 1978 to 18.5% in 2016 (Anderson et al., 2019). For our students with…

Accessible instructional materials are materials which can be used by students with disabilities as easily, effectively, and thoroughly as students without disabilities. Unfortunately, policy evidence suggests the California Community Colleges are not ensuring instructional materials are accessible. Surprisingly, while accessibility is often…

Many students, especially students with disabilities are underachieving in reading. Early evidence-based literacy instruction implemented in kindergarten and first grade is critical for providing the necessary foundation for learning to read. The status of kindergarten and first grade literacy instruction impacts the goal of ensuring students are…

In recent years, states have been interested in the amount of time students with moderate intellectual disabilities spend being educated in the general education environment. Students with moderate intellectual disabilities at a suburban high school in Illinois consistently spend more than 80% of their educational time in the special education…

Faculty attitudes have critical role on the success of students with disability in higher education. Therefore, this study examined faculty attitudes toward the provision of inclusive teaching strategies related to universal design for deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) students in a higher education institution in Saudi Arabia. This quantitative…