Study One Abstract, Introduction: Individuals with disabilities (IWDs) struggle to access health services that they need which ultimately leads to poorer overall health outcomes and health disparities. IWDs often rely on surrogate decision-makers, or caregivers, to help them make important health decisions. Therefore, the aims of the current study were to: 1) describe caregiver activities and their role in healthcare decision-making, 2) assess the level of impact of COVID-19 on the health of caregivers and IWDs, 3) identify caregiver and IWD characteristics associated with caregiver's role in healthcare decision-making, and 4) identify caregiver's role in healthcare decision-making associated with caregiver's knowledge, psychological skills, support seeking, and quantity of caregiving while controlling for caregiver and IWD characteristics. Methods: Data were collected from caregivers from two organizations in Ohio that provide services to IWDs. The dependent variable of the study was caregiver's role in healthcare decision-making. The independent variables include caregiver activities (knowledge, psychological, support seeking, and quantity of caregiving), the impact of COVID-19, caregiver characteristics, and IWD characteristics. Results: The majority of the sample identified as female, white, married, were the IWD's parent, and had some type of college degree. They had high overall knowledge, self-efficacy, and healthcare decision-making scores as well as low overall coping scores. Conclusion: The current study provided key insight into the kind of care being provided and the types of support and resources needed for caregivers to continue to provide care. Study Two Abstract, Introduction: Individuals with disabilities (IWDs) account for 14% of all public school students but have needs that are not always addressed in a general education classroom and often struggle to transition to adulthood. Therefore, the aims of the current study were to: 1) describe caregiver activities and their role in decision-making regarding education, 2) assess the level of impact COVID-19 had on IWD's access to education opportunities, 3) identify caregiver and care recipient characteristics associated with caregiver's role in decision-making regarding education, and 4) identify caregiver's role in decision-making regarding education associated with caregiver's knowledge, psychological skills, support seeking, and quantity of caregiving while controlling for caregiver and IWD. Methods: Data were collected from caregivers from two organizations in Ohio that provide services to IWDs. The independent variables for the current study included caregiver activities (knowledge, psychological, support seeking, and quantity of caregiving), the impact of COVID-19, caregiver characteristics and IWD characteristics. The dependent variable for this study was caregiver's role in decision-making regarding education for the IWD. Results: The majority of the sample identified as female, white, were the IWD's parent, and cared for individuals with down syndrome. They had high overall knowledge and self-efficacy scores and the majority always made decisions regarding what types of education the IWD received after high school. Conclusion: Caregivers play an active role in ensuring IWDs receive the educational services they need post high school. Future research is needed to determine what additional resources are needed to make the transition from high to adulthood run more smoothly. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]