While it is difficult to identify an exact number of children with hearing impairments, the General Accountability Office and IDEAData.org report that the incidence of children who are deaf or hard of hearing is small, representing about 1% of all identified students with disabilities (GAO, May 2011; IDEAData.org, 2009). Variability in the…

In 2002, Project Forum conducted a survey on special education forms and a policy forum on the issue of paperwork in special education. Some recommendations that resulted from those activities were included in the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA. With a new reauthorization pending, the topic has again aroused interest. This document presents the…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, passed in 2001, amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and required states to adopt challenging academic content standards that specify what all students are expected to know and be able to do. The act also required states to assess all students annually in mathematics and reading/language…

Based on the importance of principals' roles in supporting students with disabilities and other diverse learners, Project Forum at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), in collaboration with LeadScape, held a policy forum on this topic as part of its cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education,…

A policy forum held May 11-13, 2011 to provide input from stakeholders to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) focused on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) accountability reporting system known as the State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) process. Participants discussed their assessment of the…

Disproportionate representation of children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in special education has been a longstanding concern that the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) sought to address. The IDEA contains new requirements related to the provision of early intervening services designed to…

Although co-teaching has been a topic of interest for more than two decades among professionals advocating inclusive practices (e.g., Bauwens, Hourcade, & Friend, 1989; Garvar & Papania, 1982), the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates for curriculum access, high…

The purpose of this document is to determine whether revocation of parental consent is currently posing a challenge for states and to describe how states are responding to this new provision. Although parental consent has always played a central role in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the new provision allowing revocation of parental…

When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was reauthorized in 2004, it eliminated the requirement that individualized education programs (IEPs) include short-term objectives or benchmarks, except for students with disabilities who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards. Instead, the IDEA regulations…

The inclusion of universal design for learning (UDL) in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act 2008 (HEA) demonstrates its escalating importance in the education field. UDL concepts and practices are not yet broadly integrated into all education policy. Policy has been slow to catch up to this quickly growing practice. To address that…

Based on a survey of states, this document summarizes state-level approaches to using surrogate parents in order to meet the needs of children with disabilities. Most respondents noted that their states had issued policy or formal guidance pertaining to surrogate parents and children with disabilities, and most also described efforts to ensure…

This document focuses on state education agency (SEA) support for child find, consultation and provision of equitable service provisions for parentally placed private school students with disabilities. In July 2008, Project Forum conducted survey of all stated directors of special education to collect information on their efforts to support LEAs…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), most recently reauthorized in 2004, requires the inclusion of transition services in an individualized education program (IEP) for students with disabilities by the time they reach their 16th birthday, or earlier if determined appropriate by the IEP team. The IEP must include "(1)…

In 1992, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) first introduced autism as a federal disability category and mandated that states provide annual counts of children so identified. Since that time, the number of students identified with autism has grown significantly (U.S. Department of Education, 1994, 2002). Several states have…

As part of the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), states are "required to ensure that highly qualified personnel are recruited, hired, trained and retained to provide special education and related services to children with disabilities" [Section 612(a)(14)(D)]. The purpose of this document…