This digest summarizes the problem of over-representation of minority students in special education and offers suggestions to reduce this disproportionate representation. It notes concerns of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that minority students are being misclassified and receiving…

This guide, in both English and Russian, is intended for parents and guardians of children participating in bilingual or monolingual English-medium general education or bilingual special education programs in the New York City public schools. It provides general information about mainstreaming, the integration of special education students into…

This guide, in both English and Chinese, is intended for parents and guardians of children participating in bilingual or monolingual English-medium general education or bilingual special education programs in the New York City public schools. It provides general information about mainstreaming, the integration of special education students into…

This guide, in both English and Spanish, is intended for parents and guardians of children participating in bilingual or monolingual English-medium general education or bilingual special education programs in the New York City public schools. It provides general information about mainstreaming, the integration of special education students into…

This report presents a quantitative analysis of the educational outcomes associated with a three-year pilot project at the City College of New York (CCNY) to change the focus of the college's writing program from remediation to enrichment. The project substituted a two-semester nontracked, college-level writing sequence for two remedial courses…

This document is intended to provide necessary information to Delaware parents, legal guardians, and surrogate parents of children with disabilities concerning procedural safeguards under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B. Presented in a question-and-answer format, this guide is in several sections. The first section…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a 4-year federal grant to provide statewide planning and improved educational and support services for 150 Louisiana children/youth with deafblindness. Activities and accomplishments are reported for each of six major objectives: (1) organizing project resources; (2) improving early…

This book is intended to provide parents of students with autism with necessary information for the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process and includes relevant information from the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Chapters discuss the following topics: (1) introductory information; (2) definitions of autism, the basic…

Prekindergarten students (n=1,137) in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse urban public school took a kindergarten diagnostic assessment in September prior to entry into the regular kindergarten program. The assessment was a pilot version of a longer instrument that had been used at the school for several years. Results were used for…

This paper aims to provide practical advice for creating a placement test for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) or English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) instruction. Three forms of concrete assistance are provided: a detailed literature review; detailed steps focusing on the creation of placement tests; and a set of recommendations focusing on…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that examined the influence and additive effects of student demographic characteristics on student placement in special education programs in Michigan. Using a combination of outside data and the Michigan Department of Education Student Database (1999), statewide findings indicate that taken…

Some of the reasons for the overrepresentation of minority students in special education programs are reviewed from historical and contemporary perspectives, and the effects of this overrepresentation and some of the proposals to eliminate, or at least remedy, this situation are examined. In the 1960s, many people rejected the genetic explanations…

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 for North Dakota parents provides an overview of the special education process and the rights of students with disabilities and their families. Section 1, "The Special Education Process," provides answers to questions on the following topics that parents might have about the special education process: special education…

This document reports on student outcomes in developmental English and mathematics courses at Germanna Community College (Virginia) for the academic period 1994-2000. The study addressed four main issues: (1) the proportion of students enrolled in developmental math and English courses; (2) the success rate for students in developmental courses;…