Revised training programs for health and education service providers are advocated that will result in greater integration of services to disabled children. Attention is directed to curricular and training needs of professionals serving the disabled and their families, as well as the efforts of the American Society of Allied Health Professions…

Assessment of students with disabilities is addressed in the context of career development, vocational education, and transition. Assessment is viewed as humanistic, therapeutic, holistic, and leading to self-determination and self-advocacy. Profiling, a process of linking a database of aptitude, skills, abilities, and instructional methodology,…

Difficulties in recruiting and retaining rural special educators relate directly to deficiencies in teacher preparation programs, which are not providing their budding professionals with appropriate instruction to insure success and survival as rural special educators. In December 1982, a National Consortium of Universities Preparing Rural Special…

The problem-solving process has contributed greatly to the field of technology education and can be used to assist persons with disabilities. One problem-solving design that can help in working with persons with disabilities is the "Engineering for Success" design. This model groups technology education students with teachers of special education…

The National Rural Independent Living Network, funded to Murray State University (Kentucky) by the National Institute of Handicapped Research, is developing Community Independent Living Service Delivery Systems (CILSDS) for rural people with disabilities which will be housed in over 500 communities by early 1986. The CILSDS, staffed by citizen…

Argues that many disabilities among children are increasingly attributable to environmental variables such as violence, poverty, toxic exposure, and family dysfunction. Notes that special education professionals have had primary responsibility for providing specialized services to disabled children and are uniquely qualified to provide resources,…

This report describes deliberations and recommendations of a Maryland task force to examine issues and develop policy recommendations related to "special instruction" as an early intervention service. It specifically concerns the relationship between special instruction and specialized child care; personnel qualifications; and provision…

This paper discusses the need to rethink preservice and inservice training programs for general and special educators who teach culturally diverse students with learning disabilities. An overview identifies problems associated with traditional preservice and inservice training programs, such as Eurocentric teacher education programs and low…

This discussion focuses on the growing trend in deaf education toward bilingualism/biculturalism, with special emphasis on schools for the deaf in Canada. American Sign Language and la Langue Signes Quebecois on the one hand and English and French on the other are used as examples of bilingualism. Biculturalism is seen in the deaf individual's…

This document brings together professional standards of the special education profession adopted by the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). The standards represent the efforts of special educators to govern their own practice, guide agencies that certify or license special educators, and improve programs that prepare special educators. The…

Asserts that vocational education for special education students is necessary for their self-esteem, independence, and integration into society. Maintains that current training is woefully inadequate since it emphasizes manual labor skills. Advocates the use of Individual Training Plans (ITP) to coordinate vocational, social, and cognitive aspects…

This paper synthesizes issues and informational needs regarding the supply and demand for doctoral level personnel in special education and stresses the importance of obtaining accurate data on teacher supply and demand for planning training activities and analyzing manpower needs. Existing findings on teacher employment, teacher shortages,…

As students with disabilities are included in regular classrooms, special educators' roles shift from classroom teacher to specialist, support, consultative, and itinerant roles. The paper examines the shift, noting implications for teacher education and inservice development that encourage preparation of all teachers with a common core of…

A special-education paradigm looks at students as individuals, substantially involves parents, documents individual student's needs and achievement, and operates under judicial oversight. Regular education is premised upon group learning and instruction, political rather than legal accountability, and a local or statewide power source. (84…

The philosophical, legal, moral, economic, and empirical bases supporting educating teachers to teach both typically and atypically developing infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and to work with their families are presented. Content for such integrated teacher education curricula and certification standards are recommended. Efforts by…