Caregivers can experience significant challenges following their child's autism diagnosis and often seek informational, relational and emotional support. Post-diagnostic support for caregivers has received relatively little research attention and represents a significant gap in the international evidence base. We used an iterative codesign process…

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) includes a multitude of symptoms and can be difficult to diagnose due to a variety of international definitions. Research identifies different viewpoints on diagnosis and treatment including medical, psychological, and sociocultural views. Some research suggests ADHD is a social construct and is…

Disparities exist in autism identification and service access in U.S. public schools. Over- or under-identification of autism may limit access to appropriate services. This study examined racial and ethnic differences in autism identification, general education inclusion, and service access in the California education system and examined trends in…

In the SEND Code of Practice (DfE, 2015), autism falls under the broad category of Communication and Interaction needs. However, the code also states that autistic children and young people "may have needs that cut across all areas" of SEND (DfE, 2025, p.85). Autistic children may experience sensory processing differences (i.e.…

Purpose: Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a lifelong condition that when impacting educational performance is identified and serviced through U.S. schools as outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A few examples of educational categories that refer to DLD are (a) speech or language impairment (S/LI) and (b) specific…

This study utilized a mixed methods design to analyze responses from a nationally distributed survey of professionals' (N = 1,000) experiences conducting initial evaluations for early intervention and preschool special education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most personnel reported pausing their initial evaluations at some point during the…

This article proposes using the dimension of human resources planning (Rebore, 2011) as a vehicle to disrupt the racism and ableism in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (the "IDEA") that contributes to children of color being disproportionately overidentified into stigmatized disability categories which…

The state of Texas has been cited through the U.S. Department of Education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as failing to identify students under the Child Find component of the law using Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered System of Support (RtI/MTSS). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to identify…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a method for providing academic support to students and for identifying specific learning disabilities (SLDs). Using interrupted time series and hazard models, we examined if statewide RTI adoption in the U.S. state of Tennessee was associated with changes in rates of SLD and first-time SLD identification in…

Background/Context: Spurred by changes in federal policy, Response to Intervention (RTI) has witnessed increased adoption across states and districts in the past several decades (Berkeley et al., 2020). Originating in the special education field, RTI involves a shift from a uniform instructional approach to a tiered instructional approach…

Black, Latinx and other minoritized students have long been overrepresented in the high-incidence disability classifications including Learning Disability, Emotional Disturbance, Intellectual Impairment, and Speech and Language Impairment. Inappropriate special education placement denies students access to the general education curriculum and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the identification and delivery of special education services for students across the United States. Many students, regardless of previous disability status, are demonstrating increased academic, social-emotional, and medical needs in school in response to instructional disruptions and other impacts of the…

Low birth weight (LBW) and prematurity have been identified as health risks associated with adverse developmental and educational outcomes. This study examined whether such risks affected children's receiving special education services. Using a nationally representative sample from the Pre-Elementary Educational Longitudinal Study, we investigated…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to extend the assessment of the psychometric properties of the Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile (MBSImP). Here, we re-examined structural validity and internal consistency using a large clinical-registry data set and formally examined rater reliability in a smaller data set. Method: This study…

This study investigated the feasibility of recruiting and assessing infants with prodromal autism characteristics in the first year of life via telehealth. Participants included 41 infants (Mage = 10.51 months, 51.2% female, 80.5% White) whose parents had concerns about social communication delays or autism. All infants met concerns criteria on a…