The rapid adoption of digital content and delivery systems, each with its own capacity to track, store, and analyze student usage, interactions, and academic outcomes at both a highly detailed and granular level, has emerged as an area of widespread opportunity, but also of concern. The comingling of various student data sets (demographics, usage,…

As the charter sector grows and evolves, information regarding these autonomous public schools of choice evolves as well. Prior to 2015, only a handful of reports included information about the status of students with disabilities in charter schools. In fall 2015, the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (NCSECS) published a…

This matrix displays the decisions of the United States Supreme Court and the federal statutes most relevant to individuals with disabilities and their families. It is organized according to the core concepts of disability policy as identified by Rud Turnbull and his colleagues at the Beach Center on Disability, the University of Kansas, Lawrence,…

The National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools (the Center) is deeply committed to ensuring that students with disabilities have equal access to charter schools and that charter schools are designed and operated to enable success for all students. To accomplish this goal, the Center conducts analyses and releases a comprehensive…

For more than 30 years, scholars and practitioners have debated how to distinguish emotional disturbance (ED) from social maladjustment (SM) when determining special education eligibility and need. Scholarship on the nature of ED and SM has paid little attention to the legal parameters of practice despite the fundamentally legalistic nature of…

The "Code of Virginia" (Section 22.1-279.3:1) requires school divisions statewide to submit data to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) on incidents of discipline, crime, and violence (DCV). School divisions began reporting such data in 1991. This annual report focuses primarily on DCV data submitted for school year 2010-2011,…

In March of 2010, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivered a speech that highlighted racial disparities in school suspension and expulsion and that called for more rigorous civil rights enforcement in education. He suggested that students with disabilities and Black students, especially males, were suspended far more often than their White…

New Jersey lawmakers recently changed state law to require schools to bear the burden of proving, if there is a dispute with parents, that the educational plans they create for students with disabilities are appropriate. The state's action, which follows a similar move by New York state in August, is considered a success by parents and advocacy…

Parents of students with disabilities face a number of difficult choices in determining how to get the best education for their children. Too often, the special education system in public schools fails its students. Parents must become both experts and advocates for their children in order to navigate a burdensome maze of regulations to fight for…

The "support not supplant" theory of family support services is explained, and results of a national study of trends in family support are analyzed. Current efforts, state legislation, funding levels, respite services, financial assistance, and emerging issues are discussed. A directory of state family support programs is appended. (PB)

This practical manual provides useful, concrete ideas and suggestions to help public libraries make libraries more accessible to persons with disabilities. Most suggestions are for persons who have difficulty with mobility. Reviews of pertinent laws and regulations are followed by concrete, step-by step suggestions for planning for accessibility,…

This report reviews the development of independent service coordination for people with disabilities in Illinois and offers recommendations in support of free-standing and independent service coordination in the state. First the report defines independent service coordination, then it reviews the policy of the Illinois Planning Council on…

This resource guide provides an overview of special-education laws and issues related to K-12 education for those interested in starting or currently operating a charter school, for host or sponsoring school districts, and for state departments of education. It is essential that charter-school operators and staff who are in any way responsible for…

This hearing was held to receive testimony on private-sector employment discrimination against individuals with cancer and individuals with handicaps. The testimony related to two bills: H.R. 1546, to prohibit discrimination against cancer patients, and H.R. 192, to prohibit employment discrimination against individuals with a disability or a…

This annual report describes Illinois activities in the implementation of a statewide, comprehensive, coordinated system of early intervention services for eligible infants and toddlers and their families, as called for under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The report provides: (1) discussion of progress in each of the 14…