This document presents a five-step process for schools, districts, and states to use in monitoring accommodations for instruction and assessment. This document was designed to be a companion to the "Council of Chief State School Officers' Accommodations Manual: How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate Use of Accommodations for Instruction and…

IEP transition-related content was compared between young adults with developmental disabilities who had or did not have legal guardians. It was found that students with guardians were more likely to earn a certificate of completion, and wanted to remain living with their families, in comparison to students without guardians who were more likely…

"Response-to-Intervention" (RTI) refers to a framework for providing support to struggling learners in the general education setting. To date, RTI models have focused primarily on reading intervention and typically utilize a three-tier approach. RTI models are designed to provide high-quality instruction using evidence-based best…

Teachers at all levels of education today struggle in their efforts to assign fair, accurate, and meaningful grades to students with disabilities, especially those placed in general education classrooms. Lacking specific policies or recommendations, most teachers apply informal, individual grading adaptations for such students. Although these…

Children with autism present unique challenges related to communication, behavior, and social skills. Each child with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibits individual characteristics of the disorder. Early identification of autistic spectrum disorder has been shown to improve the child's benefit from educational interventions. There may be…

Our standard secondary model of adding standardized educational components to passive students has outlived its worth. A more sculptural metaphor may be of assistance: the idea of removing that which is not essential, of finding and bringing forth the essence of those who come before us.

Although federal special education legislation and the self-determination movement have promoted and increased students' attendance at their Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, students' active involvement in the IEP process remains limited. This study used the "Self-Directed IEP" with five students identified with a variety of…

Four elementary students referred for special education evaluation were observed systematically for 2 entire days each at three different times within the referral-to-placement process. Data were recorded on 53 variables within six categories in 10 second intervals to examine changes in the nature of instruction and academic responding time as a…

The manual was intended to clarify the relationship among annual goals, short-term instructional objectives and performance objectives for special education students in Michigan. An overview of state and federal requirements is followed by analysis of the annual goals (general statements relating to a skill area without specific reference to…

The individualistic enterprise of education is questioned in this paper. The scientific movement in education in collaboration with private corporations and federal funding has fostered an individualistic enterprise that promotes a restricted role of the individual in society. Three well-known individualization projects are Individually Guided…

The study developed and tested a systematic format for discovering and displaying relationships among five major federal laws concerning the handicapped: P.L. 93-112 (Rehabilitation Act of 1973), P.L. 93-380 (Education Amendments of 1974), P.L. 94-63 (Special Health Revenue Sharing Act of 1974), P.L. 94-103 (Developmentally Disabled Assistance and…

The authors present an approach to the assessment of learning disabilities based on a definition of significant enabling skills for school learning. Students' competence in information processing, language, and mathematics is assessed in 11 tests. By using the Assessment of Basic Competencies test, it is possible to determine a child's location in…

Implications of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) for individualized education programs (IEPs) for homebound/hospitalized students are examined. Difficulties in Florida's interpretations of the IEP regulations are cited, and the general trend of overly elaborate IEPs is noted. Special considerations with…

An evaluation of Individual Education Programs (IEPs) for 41 children (ages 7-11) with Down Syndrome enrolled in public schools indicated that the learning of functional skills in natural settings was rarely addressed in the IEPs. No relationship was found between overall functionality and either reported intelligence test scores or age.…

An Iowa program used the Individualized Education Plan model to evaluate the vocational interests and appropriate program placement of newly incarcerated young prisoners. (Author/DB)