This report presents findings of an audit of the New York State Education Department's Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID). The audit concluded that VESID oversight of school districts may not be adequately targeting formal reviews of special education programs to those districts that pose the…

This paper argues that because estimates of the number of people with developmental dyslexia range from 3% to 20% of the population, it is imperative that educators be knowledgeable about dyslexia, including being up-to-date on the neuroanatomical dyslexia research. It then reviews neuroanatomical research, including findings from seminal research…

This policy brief on the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is based on March 2002, discussions involving chief state school officers and state directors of special education from five Western states and staff of Western educational research and policy organizations. It focuses on those issues that are…

In 1998 and 1999, the Arkansas State Department of Education annual state census of deaf-blind children found none in a seven-county section of southeast Arkansas--a rural area that includes the Mississippi River delta region. A project investigated the idea that unique cultural characteristics of the region might prevent parents from identifying…

This brochure, in a question-and-answer format, provides basic information about learning disabilities for faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The questions address such topics as the definition of a learning disability, diagnostic criteria, documentation criteria, verifying the legitimacy of a student's request for…

Gifted students with disabling conditions remain a major group of underserved and understimulated youth. This digest stresses the importance of both accommodating the disability appropriately while recognizing and nurturing the individual's intellectual strengths. Discussion of assessment is followed by a series of lists intended to assist parents…

This briefing paper reviews the special education evaluation process for children with disabilities. It discusses the purpose of an evaluation and who is involved in an evaluation. An explanation of the steps of the process includes: (1) using what is known about a child by looking at a child's school file and recent test scores; (2) collecting…

Problems in providing educational services that comply with P.L. 94-142, the Education For All Handicapped Children Act, to children in psychiatric hospitals center on least restrictive environment, treatment coordination, and individuaized education programs (IEPs). Recommendations are made for IEP development, jurisdiction, procedures and…

Current methods of classifying moderately educational subnormal [ESN (M)] children do not distinguish between organic and cultural causes of moderate retardation. Two experimental studies, based on the techniques of Vygotsky, are described as an attempt to move toward redefinition of this classification. (Note: Page f...=fiche numbers.) (BW)

One of the major goals of the Jamaican Early Stimulation Project is to develop a low cost model for providing early identification of disability and intervention services. Journal availability: see EC 133 861. (Author)

Aspects considered include cognitive and social development, the preschool prediction of learning disabilities, patterns of environmental processes in learning disabilities and mental retardation, environmental disadvantages, and biological determinants. (Author/DLS)

Two studies compared the performance of Puerto Rican and African American Head Start children (total n=134) on familiar (description) and unfamiliar (one word labeling) test tasks. Results indicated children performed better on the familiar test task, which was also more sensitive in differentiating typically developing children from those with…

Teachers from a residential school (n=30) and a public school district (n=13) that serve children with visual impairments read scenarios of children with various eye conditions and abilities, and chose a primary literacy medium for each child. The teachers differed in their attitudes toward the use of braille. (Author/CR)

A review of 10 studies on the rates of referral for intervention or assessment of students from three racial groups (Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic), found the mean risk ratios comparing the referral rates between African American and Caucasian students were significantly different from zero. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This study examined whether raising a child with Down's syndrome affects a family (n=34) differently than does raising a child with another developmental disability (n=74). Results found that long-term adjustment to raising children with other disabilities was comparable to that of raising children with Down's syndrome. (CR)