The issue of teacher shortages has long been a concern in schools across the nation. Currently, the majority of states have reported persistent shortages, with special education experiencing the most severe gaps. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of school climate on teacher retention in special education schools. Special…

Confusion among stakeholders regarding some aspects of the special education process--chiefly the triennial reevaluation--leads to misapplication of rules across districts and states based on interpretations of informal lore-based reasoning. Local education agencies (LEA) can determine that no additional data are needed and advise parents to…

Specific learning disability (SLD), although moderately declining in recent years, continues to account for the highest enrollment among the eligibility classifications under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; Zirkel, 2013b). The recognition of response to intervention (RTI) in the 2004 amendments of the IDEA as an approach for…

Students with or at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders pose an immense challenge for educators, and typical practices to address them are punitive and exclusionary, leading to poor academic and social outcomes for students. To address the complex needs of students with intensive emotional and behavioral needs, evidence-based practices and…

This manuscript presents findings from a study of the contributing factors and details of special education due process hearings in the United States that involved students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The study examined 101 due process hearings conducted over a three-year period in a five-state sample: California, Illinois,…

Failure to identify gifted students is an important, yet under acknowledged problem facing our nation's schools (Miller, 2009; Webb, 2000). It is important for teachers to be aware of typical and atypical or, unexpected characteristics of gifted students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify factors that influenced elementary…

In this study, the researcher analyzed survey responses from 67 Pennsylvania attorneys with experience in special education litigation and reviewed one year of Pennsylvania special education due process hearing decisions to determine the issues that prompt parents to seek legal counsel in special education disputes, the issues that counsel…

Data-based decision making by teams is central to implementation of response to intervention (RTI) models. Few studies have examined the actual decision-making process within RTI systems of service delivery. The purpose of this study was to examine the tier assignment decisions for students across grade-level teams in three K-5 elementary schools…

This qualitative case study examines the perceptions of parents of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) towards family/school partnerships. Interviews were conducted with parents of children with autism that belonged to a parent support group in western Pennsylvania. The resulting interviews cast light on the motivators and barriers that…

This qualitative study was designed to examine how homeschooling parents in Pennsylvania make the determination to engage with public school districts to accommodate the special education needs (SEN) of their children. This phenomenological study used direct interviews with 30 Pennsylvania families who are homeschooling children with SEN. Data…

Implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) for children with autism is challenging for teachers because these practices are often complex, requiring significant training and resources that are not available in most school settings. This brief investigation was designed to identify areas of strength and difficulty for teachers implementing one…

Response to Intervention, or RTI, is a framework for using data to establish the nature and degree of the help a student needs, and then applying strategies targeting those areas. It is a carefully drawn, systematic form of data-driven decision-making that establishes multiple stages of interventions for varying degrees of problems. Though some…

The purpose of this project was to explore the decision-making approach and types of data that school psychologists use in determining special education classification. There were three research objectives: (a) to investigate the types of conditions and measures needed to test the use of the representativeness heuristic and assessment data, (b) to…

The second edition of this essential handbook provides a comprehensive, updated overview of the science that informs best practices for the implementation of response to intervention (RTI) processes within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to facilitate the academic success of all students. The volume includes insights from leading scholars…

During the National Association of State Directors of Special Education's (NASDSE) 2005 annual meeting, a panel of youth representatives challenged states to do a better job of including youth with disabilities in state-level decision making (e.g., as members of state advisory panels [SAPs] and/or transition councils). State directors of special…