Communicating with parents is a key role for teachers to foster relationships that will support student learning. This essay and discussion article focuses on a range of strategies teachers can use to promote effective communication with parents of children with special needs. The increasing prevalence of students with disabilities in our schools…

This paper presents the results of a study that explored stakeholders' perspectives on transition services for autistic students moving from primary to secondary school in Thailand and proposes a suitable transition model for use in inclusive schools. Qualitative methods were used to conduct indepth group interviews with 20 participants, including…

This discussion provides a historical overview of how policy has influenced the preparation of leaders for special education. Professional leadership standards that guide knowledge and skill acquisition to support preparation and professional learning are framed using historical contexts. Leadership practices are identified that hold promises for…

Introduction: The expanded core curriculum (ECC) refers to the generally accepted nine areas of instruction that children who are visually impaired (i.e., those who are blind or have low vision) must learn through explicit instruction in order to live independently as adults. Children with visual impairments must experience immersion in the ECC in…

Historians of student activism have rarely focused on students with disabilities, while educational historians who study students with disabilities have focused on legal reforms, not activism. We present a philosophical argument for an inclusive definition of student activism that can take place within legal and bureaucratic processes in which…

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 requires the use of evidence in adopting programs, particularly for children with reading disabilities. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a literacy intervention called Helping Early Readers Obtain Excellence in Special Education (HEROES), developed for children ages six to…

To address disparities in post-school outcomes for students with disabilities, federal legislation mandates appropriate education programs to include transition planning and programs for students with disabilities. Because administrators are held responsible for ensuring appropriate educational programs for all learners including those with…

This was a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study that sought to determine parents' perceptions regarding the extent to which districts involved them in the IEP transition plan, inclusive practices, provided opportunities in training and obtaining integrated employment, preparation for adult life after graduation, and parent satisfaction with…

The special education process is guided by subjectivity, due to interpretations and discrepancies of laws, vague criteria, professional expertise, compromised data, and decision-making of the multidisciplinary IEP team. Consequently, subjectivity contributes to the misidentification of students. The researcher explored the special education…

Parent-to-Parent individualized mentoring is an understudied strategy that has potential for supporting parents of children with disabilities as they learn to navigate the special educational planning process. Preliminary findings from a formative evaluation of individualized, intensive parent-to-parent mentoring services are shared. Data were…

The increase in English learners (ELs) with disabilities has been reported by others, yet little is known about the transition planning meeting experiences of this population and their post-school expectations. This study explored transition planning experiences and post-school expectations of a nationally representative sample of ELs with…

This article describes the results of a disabled children's childhood studies analysis of Section 1414 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004), which outlines definitions and procedures related to evaluations, eligibility determinations, individualized education programs (IEP), and educational placements for disabled children in…

As schools seek to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between special educators and students at the intersections of learning and language, the case described in this article illustrates how educators can continue to apply one of the key tenets of special education, the strengths-based approach. The hegemony of English has become so pervasive…

The purpose of this qualitative basic interpretive study was to explore the perspective of high school special education teachers regarding the factors that support or hinder student participation in the IEP process. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, memos, documents, and electronic correspondence and were coded using Braun and…

The IDEA mandates transition planning in Individualized Education Programs (IEP) for disabled students, who are now enrolling in postsecondary education programs at higher rates than ever before. Despite this, disabled students experience significantly worse post-school outcomes than their non-disabled peers. The purpose of this mixed-methods…