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…

Early Childhood Education is a key element for the growth and development of every country. This paper, provides a summary of reviewing the impact of early childhood special educational assessment on children to be "at risk" of developing special educational needs. It was identified mainly that early identification of at-risk factors for…

Having a disability can be one of the most marginalizing factors in a child's life. In education, finding ways to meet the learning needs of students with disabilities can be challenging, especially in schools, districts, regions, and countries with severely limited resources. Inclusive education--which fully engages all students, including…

What do we know about young children with delays and disabilities, and how can we help them succeed in prekindergarten through third grade? To begin with, Kathleen Hebbeler and Donna Spiker write, identifying children with delays and disabilities to receive specialized services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act poses several…

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…

Background: Traditionally, special educational needs (SEN) were often defined in terms of child deficits. Recently, there has been a tendency to define SEN in terms of (additional) support needed in the classroom. However, little is known about how teachers define students with special educational needs. To close this gap, characteristics of…

This article reports on research that was done about the way in which institutions of higher education in Namibia respond to the needs of students with disabilities. Five categories emanated from the data, namely prevalence of disability; management of disability-related data by institutions of higher education; modes of identification and…

This article explores the contribution of sociological scholarship to understanding and analysing the notions of "special educational needs" and "disability" and the ways in which the two notions have been reconfigured and theorised as "public issues" rather than "personal troubles". Barton's contribution is signified both in terms of his…

When children who are permanently disabled by traumatic brain injury (TBI) return to school, most are placed in mainstream classrooms and incorrectly presumed capable of resuming their education. Only one to two percent are classified as students with TBI, qualifying them for the services they need for their education. The failure to properly…

One important goal of Swedish educational policies is to integrate all pupils within regular education, irrespective of disability or difficulties in school, and to adjust education to individual needs. The aim of this paper was to explore how schools "socially construct", i.e. identify and support, pupils with special educational needs.…

This paper discusses various approaches to the phenomenon of disability in relation to special needs. Ever since disability researchers launched the social model of disability and criticised the field of special education for preserving an understanding of disability in accord with a medical model, the special education field has been in a state…

Advocacy and professional organizations in Alabama collaborated to bring about the formal preparation of regular educators in the identification and instruction of exceptional children. (CL)

In the Soviet Union, handicapped students are identified earlier than in this country and then are placed in special schools where they are taught with students with similar disabilities. (IRT)

Results of the study indicate that much of the variance among states in terms of numbers of handicapped students identified and use of special versus mainstreamed placement is accounted for by the amount of financial resources states and locals commit to education, a state's minority enrollment, and the number of children living in poverty.…

African Americans account for approximately 12.4 percent of the United States population. They also account for approximately 79 percent of the players in the National Basketball Association. On average, African American and Hispanic students are found eligible for special education services at higher rates than their populations would suggest,…