Describes how one elementary school implemented a plan to involve students with moderate learning disabilities in writing their own IEP programs. Asserts that process of student self-advocacy results in more active learners. (PKP)

In September 1997, the Ridgewood, New Jersey, school district placed J.N., then age 11, in the Windsor School, per the IEP (individualized education program) team's identification of his special needs for structure, safety, and security. As a state-approved private special education school, Windsor signed an agreement with Ridgewood for the…

Adapted physical education is a mandated service, whereas therapeutic recreation and traditional recreation are considered related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In this article, the authors describe the distinctions between the services, recognition of need for referral, methods of assessment, sample…

Although self-determination in general and student-led IEPs in particular have received attention nationally, the extent to which students are leading their IEP meetings remains uncertain, and the rhetoric does not seem to match the reality for the majority of students with disabilities and their IEP meetings. Self determined educators are needed…

States and other educational entities receiving Part B funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) submitted their Annual Performance Reports (APRs) and Section 618 Table 6 data together to the U.S. Secretary of Education on or before February 1, 2009. These reports may have been modified during the following few months,…

This report has been prepared as an introduction to standards-based individualized education programs (IEPs). It has been prepared especially for those who work in and are responsible for charter schools. It is an addition to the resources available on the Primers on Special Education in Charter Schools website that is designed specifically to…

Special education professionals can play a critical role in enhancing the quality of life not only for a child with a disability but also for that child's entire family. To realize this beneficial impact on the child's family, professionals must operate with these assumptions: (1) Special education professionals must acknowledge that they have a…

Since 1996, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), located in Southern California, has been under a federal court consent decree requiring compliance with laws pertaining to the delivery of special education services and the elimination of architectural barriers in schools. In 2003, the consent decree was modified, creating…

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was reauthorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990. When reauthorized in 2004 it maintained the IDEA acronym although it is now the Individuals with Disabilities Education "Improvement" Act. The federal government further demonstrated its emphasis on…

The Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities (UECU) was developed as an alternative form of postsecondary education, fostering the development of university without walls programs at a number of institutions and initiating its own undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Its commitment is to personalized, self-directed, lifelong…

Objectives of the Watertown, South Dakota, exemplary experienced based career education project are to involve the community in the educational process of participants, who will be aided (1) in improving their self-concept, their relationships with others, and their basic skills; (2) in eliminating sex role stereotyping; (3) in understanding job…

This report presents information on 51 current innovative foreign language projects and programs for grades K-12. Information was collected by means of a year-long, national survey of continuing language programs, which involved announcements in journals, newsletters, and other publications; form letters to program supervisors; an ERIC search; a…

The report describes the project's design, initial efforts, and revised objectives toward the development of a regional adult staff development system. Three elements were perceived to be essential to such a system: a regional consortium organization to effectively implement competency-based adult staff development programs, State-by-State and…

In order to assess the Adult Competency Training (ACT) Project activities and the development of an Adult Staff Development (ASD) program, designed to train adult educators through State-by-State and region-wide planning and coordination, an external evaluation was conducted by reviewing documents and records and by interviewing 40 persons from…

The article describes how a Virginia urban school system implemented an outcome-oriented work transition process with approximately 230 trainable or severely/profoundly handicapped students (ages 16-21). The article describes the system, students, and staff; developing a formal transition process; the individualized transition plan; and the job…