Including Students with Disabilities in General Education Classrooms

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that a continuum of placement options be available to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The law also requires that:

"to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities

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Effective Practices for Preparing Young Children with Disabilities for School

Over 50 years of research on children with many types of disabilities receiving a range of specialized services in many different settings has produced evidence that early intervention can:

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Learning Disabilities: Glossary of Some Important Terms

Accommodations. Techniques and materials that allow individuals with LD to complete school or work tasks with greater ease and effectiveness. Examples include spellcheckers, tape recorders, and expanded time for completing assignments.

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Learning Disabilities

The federal government defines learning disabilities in Public Law 94-142, as amended by Public Law 101-76 (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act-IDEA):

"Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, or mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage."

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Developing Effective Programs for Special Education Students Who Are Homeless

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (P. L. 100-77), defines homeless individuals as those who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; have a primary nighttime residence that is (a) a supervised, publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill); (b) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or (c) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

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Preparing Children with Disabilities for School

"All disadvantaged and disabled children will have access to high quality and developmentally appropriate preschool programs that help prepare children for school" (from Goal 1, National Goals for Education, 1990).

HOW DOES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SUPPORT READINESS FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES?

Public Law 99-457, the 1986 Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA), addresses the needs of young children with disabilities through two programs: the Handicapped Infants and Toddlers Program for children birth through age 2 and the Preschool Grants Program for 3 to 5 year olds.

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Teaching ASL as a Second Language

Interest in American Sign Language (ASL) is at an all-time high. Throughout the 1980s, ASL programs were established on college campuses and in high schools across the country. As soon as one course was established, there were enough students to fill two. If two classes were opened, enough students showed up to fill four.

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Delivering Special Education: Statistics and Trends

The 1990 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (formerly the Education of the Handicapped Act) guarantees "that all children with disabilities have available to them...a free appropriate public education which emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their needs..." In order to fully meet these goals, IDEA has:

1. Expanded the definition of "special education" to include "instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education"
2. Eextended "related services" to include "social work services" and "rehabilitative counseling." In addition, the term "handicap" has been replaced throughout the Act with the term "disability," and terminology using "people first" has been utilized.

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