Part of a volume which explores current issues in service delivery to infants and toddlers (ages birth to 3) with handicapping conditions, this chapter discusses the evolution of public policies related to early intervention services. Major milestones in federal legislation are reviewed, beginning in 1965 with Project Head Start. Current trends in…

Although development and implementation of tech prep education programs have been in progress since the Carl D. Perkins Act Amendments of 1990, several misconceptions about tech prep still exist. One such myth is that tech prep is an integration of academic and vocational education. In truth, although integration of academic and vocational…

Since the introduction of one-stop employment systems, many states have attempted to merge traditional employment and training services to provide consolidated programs and easier customer access to services. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA), passed in 1998, requires the formation of locally based one-stop service delivery systems to deliver…

Since the 1970s, federal legislation and public and private sector initiatives have attempted to increase the numbers of women employed in occupations considered nontraditional for females. In 1998, women accounted for 20-25% of employees in a handful of nontraditional occupations (NTOs) but less than 10% of employees in many other NTOs. Secondary…

The monograph examines the status of education for the handicapped and addresses the provisions of P.L. 98-199 The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1983. Chapter 1, on progress in the education of the handicapped, presents information on the following topics: (1) the number of handicapped students receiving a free, appropriate public…

The 1998 Workforce Investment Act (WIA) consolidates more than 70 programs and gives states the flexibility to partner with local governments to develop streamlined services providing universal access. Because adult education and postsecondary vocational education are required partners in the one-stop systems being established through Title I of…

This digest presents summary statistics addressing the following questions: (1) "How are children with disabilities defined?" (2) "Who are the students served?" (3) "Where are these students receiving their special education?" and (4) "How many teachers are needed?" The digest also examines past and present…

Today's information infrastructure provides access to a growing array of software and services for education. As both the capabilities of technology and the number of its uses grow, the need to set national policy for computer networking has become increasingly apparent. The High Performance Computing Act of 1991 established government support for…

This yearbook contains information on federal policy actions, state policy, important reports, statistical data on exceptional students served and personnel employed; and directory listings of key offices, officials, and organizations concerned with special education. Generally, the yearbook covers reports issued from July 1987 through June 1988.…

The proceedings of the 1986 Symposium on the Future of Special Education contains 12 papers. Presenters represented the following groups: state education agency directors, large school district directors, small school district directors, teachers, parents, teacher educators, researchers, and Canadian school administrators. An initial paper by F.…

This paper highlights recent trends, issues, and research related to the roles and authority of states in policies for teachers and teaching. A review of literature demonstrates an increased role for state policymakers in education decision making. Decisions that had typically been within the domain of professional educators are now subject to…

Recent technological, pedagogical, and regulatory developments have heightened awareness and appreciation of the utility of closed captioned television (CCTV) for adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and literacy instruction. A federal mandate that most televisions provide a closed caption decoder, increased captioning of all program types,…

Vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies are required partners in the one-stop system mandated by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). The following features have long characterized VR: the primary goal of integrated competitive employment for persons with disabilities; state flexibility in VR systems, approaches, and structures; case…

The key issues, alternatives, and implications for developing countries to consider when designing systems to define occupational standards, related training standards, and assessments were analyzed. The analysis focused on the following issues: the rationale for development of standards; clarification of definitions, terminology, and assumptions;…