Including students with special needs in the general education classroom is being widely promoted in the public schools. This practice places a heavy burden on the general educator who is often inadequately trained to meet the needs of such a diverse classroom. Co-teaching has been one of the support strategies used to address the challenges and…

Prior to the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975 (PL 94-142), the educational experience of disabled children and youth was varied and uncertain. Many children and youth with sensory, physical or cognitive impairments received minimal skill development training in institutions, separate day classes, church basements…

The author notes the assessment requirements of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and discusses the value to educators of understanding handicapped students' needs in planning their instruction and assessment. (MF)

Litigation and legislation have redefined the role of the school relative to placement of children and the educational services provided them. The focus of this review is on three previously disenfranchised groups, the young, the handicapped, and the culturally different. (Author)

Discusses the multidisciplinary team--comprised of individuals who represent various disciplines that contribute to the assessment process--and its relation to the implementation of the "least restrictive environment" for special-needs children required by Public Law 94-142. Describes the University of Florida Multidisciplinary…

The success or failure of educational reform is discussed using Public Law 94-142 as a case study. Constraints on reform arise from the dominant ideology. Education is fundamentally a dependent institution, and efforts to reform it become an attempt to resolve issues in the broader social domain. (FG)

An edited version of the Executive Summary of the Ninth Annual Report to Congress by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Department of Education is presented. Among topics addressed for the 1985-86 school year are number of students served, least restrictive environment, and anticipated service needs of students exiting…

This paper reviews literature and history of special education programs since passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142) in 1975, and describes findings from a 1987-88 survey of special education directors in 50 states. Previous literature suggested perceived benefits and difficulties with local education agency…

The article reviews the state of the art focusing on identification, evaluation, intervention, and resource allocation - and discusses several issues bearing on unserved and underserved exceptional children. (DLS)

Study examines implications for rural special education cooperatives of federal law mandating education for handicapped children. Compliance was assessed in 135 cooperatives in Regions 4 and 5. Mandated parental rights, student assessments, and individual plans posed least difficulty. Lack of special education knowledge posed most difficulty.…

In order to determine how vocational education programs should be evaluated, it is first necessary to define vocational education, to describe how vocational education programs are now being evaluated, to find out how other federal education programs are evaluated, and to suggest what criteria might reasonably be set out in future federal…

The thrust of federal legislation during the last few years has been to encourage the inclusion of handicapped persons in the mainstream of society and the educational system. Public Laws 94-142, 94-482, and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, collectively, stress free, appropriate public education, education in the least restrictive…

This conference was organized around four policy concerns: (1) the needs of handicapped, gifted, and bilingual students; (2) the use of test results to allocate federal compensatory education funds; (3) the validity of minimum competency testing; and (4) the demand for increasingly sophisticated evaluations. Garry L. McDaniels discussed the…