This guide explains Alberta's Program Unit Funding, a means to provide individual programs to supplement support for young children (ages 2.5 to 6 years) with severe disabilities. This program requires development of an Individualized Program Plan for each child and an individual budget plan submitted each school year. After an overview, sections…

This report highlights the major issues discussed during a 2-day workshop on Medicaid funding for community-based mental health services for children and youth with severe emotional disturbances. The report opens with a brief description of the service needs of children and youth with severe emotional disturbances and the system of care that can…

Three studies were conducted to explore the relationship between social skills instruction and the maintenance and generalization of skills to post-school environments. Three adult women with severe disabilities in their last year of school participated in the studies. The first study addressed the effectiveness of an instructional package to…

This Policy Research Brief summarizes longitudinal national statistics on the number and characteristics of persons with mental retardation and related conditions living in state institutions, their movement into and out of those institutions, the costs of state institutions, and the growing numbers of closures of these institutions. Findings are…

This 3-year project attempted to: (1) provide direct support to students with severe disabilities in accessing recreation opportunities; (2) develop and present inservice training on integrated leisure opportunities in New England; and (3) disseminate information on ways to integrate school and community recreation activities. The project was…

These proceedings report on activities at an annual meeting of directors of projects administered through the Severely Handicapped Branch, Division of Educational Services (DES) of the United States Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The proceedings contain presentations by: (1) Judy A. Schrag, who described the scope and intent of the…

This paper summarizes issues concerning supported employment for individuals with severe disabilities, based on discussions with seven groups concerned with improving the quality of supported employment. The paper outlines three strategic challenges facing supported employment: providing access to individual jobs for an increasing number of…

This final report describes activities of the 3-year Generalized InService Training (GIST) Project to develop and field test an inservice training model for educators serving children with moderate, severe, and profound handicaps. Critical elements of the approach are identified, including: (1) training of educators and supervisors to work…

This New York City Public Schools program was designed to augment the basic instruction of students with severe handicaps who were formerly educated within state-operated or state-supported schools or institutions. The program's teacher trainer provided up-to-date materials and equipment, individual consultation, support, and group training to…

For the 1989-90 school year, two Minnesota elementary schools developed a program in which 14 students with severe to profound disabilities became full-time members of regular education classrooms. The program maintained functional programming for the students with disabilities within the context of the activities and materials used by regular…

The goal of this 2-year project was to examine applications of microcomputer technology in classrooms for students with severe handicaps. Staff members in 12 classrooms in the School District of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) were taught to use Apple IIe microcomputer systems and various peripheral devices. Teachers in these classrooms found word…

This study was undertaken in response to Congressional concern about the relationship between two major federal programs: the Chapter 1 Handicapped Program and the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA). The study found that, although the services handicapped children receive are similar in both programs, they often are more frequent or more…

Direct observation procedures were utilized in assessing the social interactions of 37 adults with severe disabilities in 18 employment programs, representing 3 different supported employment contexts (individual, enclave, and work crew). The data gathered focused on: (1) job engagement time; (2) extent of interaction with work supervisor, human…

Age appropriate training programs in natural environments for deaf-blind adolescents help to develop functional skills, with the ultimate goal of independent living and work placement. Other approaches to the education of handicapped children entail activity for the sake of activity, or babysitting and fun activities. The actual training of a…

The process of focus-finding in qualitative research is ongoing and dynamic, involves researcher choices and decisions (rather than pure discovery), and is a process of social construction in which the researcher interacts with the research setting. Focus-finding is discussed in the context of a qualitative research study of the integration of…