The purpose of this report is to summarize the status of state-defined alternate diplomas in the 50 U.S. states three years after the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) indicated that states could develop these diplomas and use them in accountability calculations. To count this diploma in a graduation measure for accountability, several…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine confidence levels and identify predictors of increased confidence of school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) relative to different aspects of the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) assessment process. Method: Surveys were completed by 272 school-based SLPs. Questions were…

For adolescents with severe disabilities, efforts to enhance the social dimensions of schooling are widely advocated, yet rarely implemented. The peer interactions and relationships so critical to school success and individual well-being can be elusive for many students with intellectual disability, autism, and multiple disabilities. This article…

The telling of personal stories is a feature of everyday life. Young people with learning difficulties may find it difficult to report what has happened to them. A project was set up to investigate the impact of Storysharing® on the co-construction of personal narratives by staff and students in a special school. The current study investigated the…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how special education teachers describe selecting and applying differentiated instructional strategies for students with mild, moderate, to severe disabilities in self-contained classrooms within a school district in Arizona. Jean Piaget's social constructivism theory and Carol Ann…

Education of children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities requires adequate assessment of their educational needs and potential to learn. Dynamic testing using analogical reasoning tasks may be a promising way to perform such an assessment. However, it remains unclear how dynamic testing with these children may be done in practice.…

Students with significant disabilities typically experience poor postschool employment outcomes. However, when provided opportunities to work and engage within their communities, they can gain necessary work-specific and workplace social skills to improve outcomes. This article outlines a six-step model for community-based employment programs…

This study examined the effectiveness of the intensive implementation of a multicomponent reading intervention ("Voyager Passport") with 306 fourth-grade students with severe reading difficulties. Students with reading comprehension achievement below the 15th percentile in the fall of fourth grade were randomly assigned to the intensive…

Adapted shared storybook reading has been demonstrated to be effective at increasing both engagement and comprehension during shared storybook reading for elementary-aged students with exceptional needs. Research on these methods has primarily been conducted with students in self-contained elementary classrooms and has lacked evidence of…

Dissent is conceptualized as a largely able-minded political expression. Ashley Taylor argues in this essay that educational philosophers, therefore, lack an understanding of dissent that can capture the politically relevant expressions of students labeled with significant disabilities. While traditional frameworks of dissent may capture many of…

While legislation and research have promoted inclusive education and the importance of literacy instruction for students with extensive support needs, the majority of literacy instruction research continues to occur in separate self-contained special education settings. This article is a call to action to the educational research community to…

Background: People with intellectual disability who require cancer services face several barriers and inequities, including delayed or unrecognised cancer diagnosis and inadequate attention paid to their specific concerns, needs and preferences about care. Methods: In this case report, we present a case report of a 33-year-old male with severe…

Person-centred planning (PCP) puts individuals with an intellectual disability at the centre of service and support planning, identifying how individuals wish to live their lives and what is needed to make that possible. PCP has been identified as having the potential to facilitate improved social inclusion and community participation. A…

Students with significant disabilities have intellectual disability and require individualized modifications, adaptations, and supports to access grade-level content (National Center on Educational Outcomes, 2013). This group of students presents a unique challenge for literacy instruction, particularly at the high school level. Teachers must…

Most music educators have little experience or preparation in teaching students with severe intellectual disabilities. Increasing diversity in our schools will require music educators to teach students whose needs exceed those typically found in the music class or ensemble. Facilitating their inclusion in a music program can be immensely rewarding…