Dyslexia is a word-level reading disability that impacts decoding and encoding skills (International Dyslexia Association [IDA], 2002). The estimated prevalence of individuals impacted by dyslexia varies from 5% to 20% (Phillips & Odegard, 2017). In the United States, the primary legislation overseeing special education is the Individuals with…

School psychologists are well served to stay up to date on trends in special education law, particularly with respect to determinations when school teams' decisions are challenged. This allows them to focus on proactive best practices that foster accurate specific learning disability (SLD) identification and active collaboration with parents. This…

The North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has developed two methods of working with low-literacy students. One is testing for accommodations for GED testing. The other is integrating the STAR literacy program for adult readers.

This brief, co-produced by the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) and Accessible Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Systems (ATLAS), provides important information about students with dual sensory loss who also have significant cognitive disabilities, as well as recommendations for identification and implications for instruction. The…

This article discusses the author's belief that the notion of a foreign language (FL) "disability" started with the a priori assumption that there is a unique disability for FL learning and an intimate connection between FL learning and learning disabilities (LD). Educators, clinicians, and researchers were largely uninterested in…

The Global Research Agenda for Children with Disabilities (the Research Agenda) is a strategic framework that identifies priority research areas -- defined through a global research prioritization exercise -- to close critical evidence gaps, inform inclusive policies and programmes, and guide effective investments that support children with…

This article proposes using the dimension of human resources planning (Rebore, 2011) as a vehicle to disrupt the racism and ableism in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (the "IDEA") that contributes to children of color being disproportionately overidentified into stigmatized disability categories which…

The implementation of prereferral models was being discussed in educational literature as early as 1979. Over the past decade, schools in the United States have begun to adopt prereferral models to meet multiple goals, such as reducing inappropriate referrals to special education, supporting students who face academic and behavioral challenges,…

"Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to…

The purpose of this article is to provide special educators with significant and perhaps surprising recent lessons in special education law. These lessons under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act range from the threshold issues of child find and eligibility through the central obligation of…

The current paper describes the process used for developing the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Assessment of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Learning Disabilities-Consensus Statement and Supporting Documents, and the rationale for some of the decisions. The guidelines were developed by a cross-sectoral working group of psychologists who…

The State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) is an important tool for states to assess local education agency (LEA) implementation of IDEA. However, reviewing LEA performance on the SPP/APR indicators must not be the only tool. This Fast Five introduces five factors (plus one!) other than the SPP/APR indicators that states should…

Teachers are obligated to support students with developmental writing disorders, referred to as dysgraphia, in line with policy and legislation related to disability. Dysgraphia is a relatively unknown writing disorder within English classrooms, with an estimated 3-5% of school-aged students bearing this hidden disability. Within the field of…

Background: Early intervention (EI) can improve a range of outcomes for families of children with developmental disabilities. However, research indicates the level of access does not always match the level of need. To address disparities, it is essential to identify factors influencing access. Method: We propose a framework where access to EI is…

For this 22nd article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the topic is child find and eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including as a secondary matter the intersecting requirement for a comprehensive…