Studies race and gender, rule violations, punishments, referral rates and frequencies, and follow-up activities to determine differences in treatment by race, sex, and handicapping condition found in 4,391 discipline files from 9 schools of a Florida kindergarten through grade-12 district. Racial bias exists in the administration of punishment.…

A transitional planning model implemented at St. Joseph's School for the Blind in Jersey City, New Jersey, incorporates a broad conceptualization of transition that includes social skills, independent living skills, and overall competence in adjustment to the community. The model considers parental involvement, advocacy, and leadership as…

To respond effectively to the complex issues presented by students with disabilities, colleges can develop a broad network of campus collaborators and clearly articulated policies and procedures to handle most or all situations. Integrating effective policies and procedures with a decisive mission statement, competent staff with specific…

A culturally appropriate program with a functional approach was developed to train related services assistants (RSAs) in U.S. Pacific jurisdictions. RSAs support students with severe disabilities to achieve individualized-education-program objectives. Evaluation revealed positive impacts for disabled students served by 19 trainees, but newly…

Presents a pull-out section that includes four brief articles and accompanying learning activities. The articles include an architectural examination of the move from medieval fort to Renaissance palace, interdisciplinary biographical writing assignments, a look at the portrayal of people with disabilities in juvenile literature, and material on…

This commentary on a previous article that demonstrates three ways of analyzing qualitative interview data (content, cultural models, and narrative analyses), discusses the importance of focusing on cultural models of quality of life in assessing early intervention programs, forging partnerships between families and researchers, and linking…

Parenting is a subject about which people typically hold strong opinions, but about which too little solid information or considered reflection exists. And clearly critical questions about parenting abound. Moreover, the family generally, and parenting specifically, are today in a greater state of flux, question, and re-definition than perhaps…

Mentoring programs are increasingly popular as preventive and/or supportive interventions for youth with various needs. A meta-analysis of mentoring program effects conducted by DuBois, Holloway, Valentine, and Cooper (2002) suggests that youth from backgrounds of risk (defined broadly) have the capacity to benefit from mentoring, especially when…

This article describes a process called "Photovoice," originally developed by Carolyn Wang and Mary Ann Burris (1997) in the field of public health, and illustrates how thirteen students with disabilities in three high schools used cameras and text to show and tell how they engage or fail to engage in their education. This article indicates a…

Objective: Measure select Healthy People 2010 Leading Health Indicators in young adults with and without a history of developmental disabilities (DD) using a population-based cohort. Methods: Young adults were interviewed to assess the prevalence of seven Leading Health Indicators: physical activity, overweight and obesity, tobacco use, substance…

Background: Differential responses in terms of gender and antisocial behaviour in emotional reactivity to affective pictures using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) have been demonstrated in adult and adolescent samples. Moreover, a quadratic relationship between the arousal (intensity) and valence (degree of unpleasantness) has…

We examined the service needs of foster families with children who have disabilities. Foster parents in a large Canadian city were asked "What services or supports would be helpful to you?" The responses to this question were edited for clarity and to eliminate redundancies, and sorted into piles of like statements by a group of 15…

This qualitative investigation was conducted with 20 K-5 general education teachers from 10 culturally diverse schools in a large urban school district in the southeastern area of the United States. Data were obtained through semistructured interviews and referral records. Questions were designed to elicit their perspectives about special…

The hallmark of inclusive education is the teachers' willingness to accept students with special needs. Their attitudes and knowledge about inclusive education are important as these are indicators of such willingness. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' attitudes and their perceived knowledge towards inclusive education in…

No Child Left Behind offers many challenges to those who work with children with EBD [emotional and behavioral disorders]. It also offers opportunities never before available for collaboration and cooperation between general and special educators. Two snapshots of opportunities are provided. The first summarizes some of the challenges our field…