The purpose of this article is to analyze parental use of an online support group about their children with disabilities. A content analysis was conducted of 1718 emails from a listserv support group for parents of children who have been diagnosed as eligible for special education services. Key topics included the following: How to deal with…

In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) mandates functional assessment based behavioral support plans for all students with disabilities who display challenging behavior. However, very few studies have been undertaken to examine the effectiveness of the functional assessment-based behavioral plans with high…

Evaluation of the Social Integration Program (SIP) which provided mainstream services to 31 preschool handicapped children in Utah during its first three years found that SIP children made significant gains on educational and developmental tests and mastered a high proportion of individualized education program objectives. (Author/DB)

The second of two articles on individualized education programs (IEPs) reports on a study of the relationship between IEPs and student achievement. The study found agreement among policy makers, administrators, and educators that IEPs serve an accountability function, improve teaching, and enhance learning. However, different groups emphasized…

An understanding of the role played by specific centers of the brain will help special education instructors develop appropriate individualized instructional programs for the learning disabled. Neurobiological learning makes it clear that teaching the learning disabled should be based on the principles of learning strategies instruction,…

Summarizes a case involving a district's alleged violation of a neurologically impaired student's rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504). The Third Circuit Court ruled that IDEA's "stay-put" rule did not excuse the district from developing a timely individualized…

This investigation analyzed goals from the Individual Educational Programs (IEPs) of 54 high school students with diagnosed reading disabilities in basic skills (decoding and/or word identification). Results showed that for 73% of the students, the IEPs written when they were in high school failed to specify any objectives regarding their acute…

This qualitative study evaluated the belief systems and professional practice of program graduates of an early childhood special education teacher preparation program regarding collaboration with families of children with disabilities. Eleven graduates were interviewed over the course of a school year to identify perceived challenges to their…

Austin Independent School District used $16 million in federal funds to support 25 ARRA IDEA projects to reduce the student academic achievement gap, reduce disproportionality, reduce dropout, improve district processes, improve teacher quality, and evaluate programs.

Over thousands of years the brain has evolved. Our ability to change its structure is quite limited. What we can do is change the way we work with the brain and appeal to it. These notions are the building blocks for this paper. Three strands of intellectual work (neuroscience to include social intelligence, pedagogy, and environment/culture) are…

Special education service delivery is often the source of disputes between parents and districts and an issue in special education class-action lawsuits. Despite these controversies, there has been little large-scale research on the delivery of services. This study represents a large-scale assessment of the delivery of special education services…

While availability of information and access to it enables education in developing countries, information alone does not secure transmission of knowledge--especially to remote learners in low-tech, infrastructure-poor communities. For this reason, 21st century distance education tools require innovative mechanisms for accessing the…

The Austin Independent School District presents the 1982-83 final technical report of Project PASS, which employs the notion of cultural congruence in instruction or culture-specific instruction to explain the poor performance of black students in school. It encouraged teachers to change their perspective about black students who are not…

The report highlights evaluations from the 1979-80 school year of 18 deaf/blind programs in Texas. Two previous years' findings are noted. Analysis of teacher and administrator questionnaires indicated an increase in the trend toward more uniform structuring of individualized education programs (IEPs). Programs were not as successful as the…

Designed for use as a media resource for trainers or as self study modules, the text of two slide/tape presentations on writing special education individualized assessment reports is presented. The first module discusses the federal requirements for conducting assessments in special education. The second module is a humorous presentation which…