Describes the main forms of supported employment and the essential components of effective vocational rehabilitation programs for those with severe disabilities, considers their cost effectiveness, and outlines successful programs in the United States, Britain, and Italy. (JOW)

In response to the establishment of school-based teacher support teams to assist teachers serving students with learning and behavior problems in the general classroom, this article summarizes data from 5 studies of 96 teams concerning team goals, team impact on student performance and special education referral, reactions of classroom teachers,…

Outlines six successful components of effective programs serving special-needs students in alternative-education settings, with particular emphasis on the mandates of the 1997 Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (SR)

A counseling-skills course for 11 health professionals, covering family-counseling skills and child-management techniques, was evaluated over a 10-month period. Findings regarding perceived counseling ability, knowledge of counseling theories, value of the course, and trainee's self-concept are presented. Supervision and evaluation research issues…

Factors that either facilitated or inhibited development of inclusive preschool programs were identified through interviews with 201 direct service and administrative personnel in four U.S. geographical regions. Key personnel were identified as the strongest facilitators of inclusion. Other important influences were provision of training, external…

A model program in rural Pennsylvania designed to improve inclusion and transition for students with disabilities required considerable administrative and instructional support and major changes in philosophy and curriculum. Features include school-to- work coordinator, learning facilitator for special needs students, joint Individualized…

This commentary discusses three major factors that are reshaping the field of behavioral support: change in the outcomes of research/intervention, change in the comprehensive nature of interventions, and change in the contexts in which research is conducted. The focus on broader outcomes, comprehensive support, and real contexts is emphasized. (CR)

After spending one day weekly during fall 1998 observing how students with disabilities are served in an Edison school, a teacher educator concludes that Nancy Zollers and Arun Ramanathan did the Seven Hills Charter School a great injustice in their December 1998 "Kappan" article. (Contains 17 references.) (MLH)

Addresses program evaluation of the personnel preparation in early-intervention programs. Describes an interdisciplinary preservice program, discusses the program's evaluation areas, reviews the specific evaluation tools, and presents evaluation results over a four-year period. Critical program components are highlighted. (Author/DB)

Background: Microswitches can be vital tools to help individuals with extensive multiple disabilities acquire control of environmental stimulation. This study was aimed at extending the evaluation of a computer system used as a microswitch for word utterances with three participants with multiple disabilities. Method: Sets of 7 or 12 word…

This article reports on a survey of the opinions of employment networks (ENs) about serving social security beneficiaries who are blind or visually impaired under the Ticket to Work program. Although most of the 267 ENs who participated in the survey expressed concerns about working with those who are blind or visually impaired, they did not seem…

This article discusses the community-based vocational rehabilitation (CBVR) of persons with disabilities. In 1991, a pilot project was instituted by the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme in conjunction with Oyo State Government in Nigeria. The aim was to facilitate the reintegration of persons with…

In this study, the researchers examined the effectiveness of two vocational rehabilitation interventions in improving employment, educational, clinical, and quality-of-life out-comes for people with psychiatric disabilities. The authors recruited participants in waves over a 2-year period and randomly assigned them to receive either psychiatric…

In the last 20 years, teacher preparation programs have come under close scrutiny by the public and governmental agencies charged with monitoring teacher quality and the academic achievement of American students. Both regular and special education teacher preparation programs struggle with the requirement to collect valid and reliable evidence of…

In the high-probability request sequence (high-p) procedure, a requester presents a rapid sequence of requests a child is known to be likely to comply with, followed by a request to perform a response for which there is a low probability of compliance (low-p request). To extend previous research from institutional and research settings to home…