Despite the long-term negative outcomes associated with restraining and secluding students, these practices are frequently used in schools, with disproportionate use on students with disabilities. Based on recent guidance from the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, misusing these practices violates student rights under the Americans…

The only consistency with children, with and without disabilities, is that they are inconsistent. Much of a child's behavior is adult controlled by their reaction, methods used, and consistency in support and discipline. When adults change the way they respond to the child's behaviors, the child gradually will learn to modify their behavior.…

Background/Context: The administration of student discipline is one of many responsibilities under the purview of teachers and educational leaders across the country. Maintaining a safe environment with minimal disruptions is not an easy task. From existing research on student discipline, we have learned that critical examination of data and…

Teachers and parents often find special education law complex and confusing. As one step for a basic foundation in special education law, a previous "TEACHING Exceptional Children" article (Zirkel, 2005) provided a snapshot of the "top five case concepts" based on 10 decisions from the Supreme Court. Each of these decisions…

From the beginning of time, there has been a pervasive interest in getting some members of the human race to conform to the wishes of other members of the human race. The use of positive as well as not so positive methods have been utilized, researched and espoused upon. The current paper presents a review of the vast literature on the history of…

School leaders and special educators are expected to be experts on all levels and types of special education law and services, types of disability, and aspects of academic and functional programming. With the increasing demands of the job and the ever-changing legal and educational climate, many administrators and teachers are overwhelmed, and few…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the main federal statute governing special education for children from birth through age 21. IDEA protects the rights of children with disabilities to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). It also supplements state and local funding to pay for some of the additional or excess costs of…

Special education is the most highly litigated area within the field of education. Therefore, the purpose of the current article is to highlight cases (court decisions, Office of Civil Rights rulings, and State Educational Agency hearings) involving students with disabilities in 2015. Highlights from the case law point to the need for school…

This issue of the Occasional Papers Series aims to draw attention to the use of storytelling as a medium for provoking dialogue about inclusive classrooms and school communities. It offers readers stories of classroom life that provide insights into understanding the complexities that make up the lives of children with disabilities, their…

The goal of our study was to examine if school-wide positive behavior support implementation was associated with reductions in the discipline gap. We provided outcomes from descriptive and preliminary statistical analyses of three years of office discipline referral data from elementary schools engaged in school-wide positive behavior support…

This article provides an update of a previous analysis of the case law concerning manifestation determinations culminating in the revised pertinent provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004. Specifically, the update consists of a synthesis of the legislative history, Office of Special Education Programs…

The National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) 2012 is a national study of nearly 13,000 youth with and without an individualized education program (IEP). These students were chosen to represent all students with and without an IEP in the United States in grades 7 through 12 (or secondary ungraded classes). Among the youth with an IEP are…

The National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) 2012 is a national study of nearly 13,000 youth with and without an individualized education program (IEP). These students were chosen to represent all students with and without an IEP in the United States in grades 7 through 12 (or secondary ungraded classes). Among the youth with an IEP are…

Behavior management can be a key to student, teacher, and district success. When students with disabilities are served, effective behavior management is even more critical. Failure to implement proper discipline with students with disabilities can have financial consequences. For students, the emotional toll can be greater, albeit intangible.…

It is widely recognized that the 12 percent of all youth in American public schools who have disabilities comprise a set of students with distinct capacities and needs. Federal legislation, including the most recent updates to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, identifies different disability groups and mandates that…