Charter schools are public schools authorized to operate with some independence from district or state public school regulations, while still being held accountable for student outcomes. Like traditional schools operated by school districts, charter schools are free and are intended to be open to all students who desire to attend. This study…

Current Portuguese Public Law No. 3/2008 requires the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Health and Disability for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) as a reference framework to guide assessment and intervention procedures for students with additional support needs. This study explores whether the ICF-CY use fostered multidimensional…

Nearly one in five New York City public school children is diagnosed with a disability, making them eligible to receive special education services. These students are diverse in terms of their skills, abilities, and background characteristics. Historically, students with disabilities have had less access to learning opportunities and lower…

Students in recreation programs are often introduced to laws that apply to therapeutic or community recreation services. Several of these laws have to do with policy regarding people who experience a disability. One important law is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In order for students to better understand the law and its…

Vision is one of the five senses. Being able to see gives tremendous access to learning about the world around--people's faces and the subtleties of expression, what different things look like and how big they are, and the physical environments, including approaching hazards. When a child has a visual impairment, it is cause for immediate…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students with identified behavioral needs were provided a different level of behavioral intervention based on their special education disability category verification. A second purpose of this study was to determine what caused potential differences as interpreted by individuals working in the…

In order to guide organizational growth in the Master's in Education with an emphasis in Special Education program, offered at Southwestern College, an in-depth qualitative study was conducted with participants from three specific realms located in the state of Kansas. Participants from the Kansas State Department of Education, Southwestern…

A literature review was conducted to identify evidence-based practices in secondary transition using quality indicator checklists for experimental research. Practices were categorized by the Taxonomy for Transition Programming. Overall, 32 secondary transition evidence-based practices were identified. Two practices had a strong level of evidence,…

This paper presents the findings of a study that examined the transition services of individualized education programs (IEPs) for high school students with special needs. The Program Evaluation for Procedural and Substantive Efficacy of Transition Services was used to analyze 282 IEPs in terms of procedural compliance with the Individuals with…

This "Packet of Information for Families" (PIF) was developed for parents whose children are identified as both gifted/ talented and on the autism spectrum, or twice-exceptional. Parents of twice-exceptional children often search for appropriate and challenging enrichment programs for their child, but the dearth of information available…

This ERIC digest provides highlights of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (P.L. 105-17). Changes to general provisions of the law are explained, as well as changes in other areas, such as outcomes and standards, evaluations and curriculum, procedural safeguards, discipline, early intervention, and teacher training…

This book is designed to further understanding of the procedures of Wisconsin's special education programs. The first section of the book is a large chart that is divided into key topics, including child find, transition, referral evaluation procedures, the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team, eligibility, the IEP, student placement, and…

The research project investigated whether expert system tools have become sophisticated enough to be applied efficiently to problems in special education. (Expert systems are a development of artificial intelligence that combines the computer's capacity for storing specialized knowledge with a general set of rules intended to replicate the…

This document contains regulations governing the provision of equal educational opportunities and free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive educational alternative to all Maine student residents with disabilities between the ages of 5 and 20. Twenty sections contain provisions relating to: (1) the policy and purpose of special…

Summarized are two reports of a federally funded project on the use of artificial intelligence in special education. The first report, "Artificial Intelligence Applications in Special Education: How Feasible?," by Alan Hofmeister and Joseph Ferrara, provides information on the development and evaluation of a series of prototype systems…