Many adults with Down syndrome (DS) experience difficulty with speech production, and intelligibility challenges and communication breakdowns are common. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention can provide important supports for persons with these complex communication needs but must be customized to address the goals,…

All students have the right to be safe at school. Regulations mandate that schools must establish procedures to ensure the safety of all students during emergency situations. Twenty years ago, a Midwestern school district created Individualized Emergency Evacuation Plans (IEEPs) to address unique safety needs of students with disabilities. A mixed…

One way to provide intensive intervention for students with severe and persistent reading difficulties is to use a systematic data-based decision-making process called data-based individualisation (DBI). DBI is a process for identifying needs and aligning them with specialist support. Meta-analyses of DBI studies by university-based researchers…

Academic libraries have long employed student workers to assist with routine tasks, creating beneficial outcomes for both the student and the library. Traditionally, these tasks primarily consisted of checking in/out materials, shelving books, and monitoring the library; however, libraries have also started allowing students to assist in a…

Background: Nationally, about 15% of students -- about 7.3 million -- receive special education services. Each of these students is legally entitled to the services specified in their Individualized Education Program (IEP) document, which is co-developed by a child's school team (e.g., teachers, school psychologist), family, and in many cases, the…

We describe a decision protocol for choosing among potentially efficacious toilet training interventions and tested its effects with 3 preschool participants with disabilities. We utilized a decision protocol (Keohane and Greer 2005) to determine whether to initially implement interval or rapid training interventions as well as to determine…

The individualized education program (IEP) process can be difficult for many parents of children with disabilities to navigate. Analyzing qualitative data from a national, web-based survey, this study examined parent experiences during IEP meetings, as well as advice parents have for other families participating in the IEP process. Participants…

The present level of academic achievement and functional performance (PLAAFP) is an essential component of the individualised educational program (IEP) process because it identifies student strengths and areas for growth. However, there is minimal research that examines components of an IEP and student outcomes. The current study examined the…

School-based day treatment is an intensive mental health service for children with social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. Research on day treatment is scarce and descriptions of program models are lacking. We used stimulated recall interviews to explore the moment-to-moment processes and strategies of classroom staff in a day treatment…

The purpose of this article is to confront critical issues of race and add a missing critical analysis of the attempts to implement culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) within education in Nova Scotia and across North America. This critical analysis addresses the inequitable learning environments facing Black learners. The stories of both…

Individual education plan (IEP) quality is a strong predictor of student outcomes and progress towards their goals. In the Republic of Ireland, unlike many other jurisdictions, IEPs are not compulsory, regulated or assessed. Therefore, the aim of our co-produced, mixed-methods study was to identify and understand the IEP priorities of the autistic…

Autistic students are educated in Australia across a variety of contexts and almost all educators use individualized goal-setting as a way of ensuring appropriate accommodations and curriculum modifications. Educators experience similar challenges when developing individualized goals for students, including lack of a standardized process for goal…

Learning path generation involves the computation of learning trajectories to personalize academic instruction to prevent school problems. The Educational Planning Problem (EPP) considers generating personalized learning paths by scheduling activities that satisfy expected grades while minimizing plans makespan. In this work, we propose two…

Choosing where to apply to college is a complex problem with long-term consequences, but many students lack the guidance necessary to make optimal choices. I show that a technology which provides low-cost personalized college admissions information to over forty percent of high schoolers significantly alters college choices. Students shift…

Phenomenology, as both a philosophy and a research method, is utilized to comprehend and interpret lived experiences. Researchers frequently employ phenomenological methodologies to discern the essence, or core meaning, of shared experiences associated with specific phenomena. This case study delineates the advantages and challenges of using this…