Given federal mandates, public school districts have adopted inclusive practices with the expectation that general education teachers can accommodate students with disabilities. For teacher preparation programs to prepare future teachers for this reality, it is important to understand the composition of a "typical" general education…

Because newborn hearing screening has become the standard of care in the United States, every state has established an early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) program responsible for establishing, maintaining, and improving the system of services needed to serve children with hearing loss and their families. While significant developments…

While the overall student population in Massachusetts has dropped slightly in the last 10 years, the number of English language learners (ELLs) has increased by more than 50 percent. In April 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MA DESE) contracted with researchers at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC),…

In this article, the authors clarify the role of the leadership team, providing a rationale for one integrated team to examine academic, social, and behavioral programming, with careful attention to including all key stakeholders. Next, the authors discuss the procedures for teaching all key stakeholders the comprehensive, integrated, three-tiered…

Recent literature notes a significant increase in students being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Yet, no uniform testing protocol exists. It is vital for students and educators that a unified testing process be created and established. This study investigated which ASD testing instruments were currently used in Southern California…

Asperger syndrome is a relatively new diagnostic classification. A number of factors make receiving a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in adulthood a unique experience. This study used a phenomenological approach to examine the experiences of 10 adults receiving such a diagnosis. Results suggested that six major themes were associated with receiving…

Fitness for trial constitutes the most frequent referral to forensic assessment services. Several approaches to this evaluation exist in Canada, including the Fitness Interview Test and Basic Fitness for Trial Test. The following article presents a review of the issues and a method for basic fitness for trial evaluation.

Alberta Education provides funding to school authorities to support the development and implementation of programming for students with severe disabilities. The "Handbook for the Identification and Review of Students with Severe Disabilities" presents case studies designed to assist school authority personnel with the identification and…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the actual implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) was related to school psychologists' knowledge, district opportunities for RtI training within the school district, and school psychologists' attitudes toward RtI. The implementation and use of RtI was predicted to be dependent upon those…

This paper presents a screening tool for well-described responsiveness-to-intervention models and comparison models.

This study examines the results of the Alternative Identification and Reporting (AIR) program, which promoted the nonuse of disability labels for students receiving special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (i.e., students who would previously have been identified as having an emotional/behavioral disorder, specific…

Using data gathered from the "Childhood Bipolar Disorder Survey," this study explored Pennsylvania school psychologists' knowledge and practices when evaluating children for Bipolar Disorder (BPD). Results indicate that only a small percentage of school referrals involved children or adolescents with BPD. Participating school…

Ms. K. has attended ABE (Adult Basic Education) classes for almost one year and has had significant difficulty in making progress in reading. She has passed some of the GED tests, but has struggled with others due to having insufficient time to complete them. She currently works as a teacher's aide in a daycare center. Her goal is to pass the GED…

A checklist is offered to help classroom teachers determine behaviors characteristic of dyslexic functioning (both visual-spatial and auditory-linguistic types). Tactics are then suggested for tailoring approaches to their characteristics--strong visual/weak auditory processing skills or strong auditory/weak visual processing skills. (CL)

A survey of 100 speech-language pathologists involved in the assessment and treatment of patients with dysarthria investigated their attitudes toward the Darley, Aronson, and Brown (DAB) method of classification. Results indicated that most clinicians, believing it helps in the design of a treatment protocol, used the DAB classification system.…