In the context of the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the German Rectors' Conference has expressed the goal of empowering inclusive education at German universities. The German study "beeinträchtigt studieren" from 2018 indicates that the situation of disabled university students needs…

Since states closed school buildings to protect students from COVID-19, schools have had to adapt quickly to keep students learning. Nearly all states put out guidance or resources to help districts and schools institute continuous learning and surmount the challenges faced by students in homes with limited or no internet access and those with…

In this edition of "Equity Dispatch," we discuss equity implications around disciplinary policies in virtual learning contexts. We offer practical applications of principles of Universal Design for Learning & Culturally Responsive Pedagogy as proactive strategies for engaging students in virtual learning activities.

In this design case, we describe our first attempt to create a virtual mathematics tutoring program for students with learning disabilities. We describe in detail how the design was motivated by the pandemic which forced schools into remote learning, how a university and school collaborated on the design, the rationale for our design decisions,…

The COVID-19 school closures put the weaknesses in our special education system in stark relief. Overnight in March 2020, students with disabilities lost almost all the supports and services essential to their academic, physical, and emotional development. Amid the turmoil last spring, CRPE, in partnership with the National Center on Special…

The coronavirus known as COVID-19 has worked its way into nearly every corner of the globe and caused, among other restrictions, a shutdown of most schools across the United States. Desperate not to lose time away from the classroom, school officials are rushing to shift instruction to the Internet. Districts and schools face a daunting challenge…

In this dissertation, I present a set of studies that focus on the social networks and personal development of three cohorts of young adults with an Intellectual Disability in a U.S. Department of Education funded program at a public institution in the Southeast United States. A concurrent mixed methods design within a Personal Network Research…

In this study, the authors examined middle school mathematics teachers' perceptions of their instructional practices with students with disabilities (SWDs) during face-to-face instruction before the COVID-19 pandemic and eLearning during the pandemic. A survey explored teachers' use of research-supported practices and the challenges and supports…

Disability is a social force that arguably creates more education problems for students with disabilities than their impairments. Understanding it as a form of social oppression can lead to less exclusionary teaching and learning attitudes, beliefs, expectations and practices. Numerous studies have looked at the experiences of staff and students…

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most significant events affecting the largest number of countries at the same time around the globe. Governments instituted the closure of schools and lockdown of cities and other areas to prevent the spread of the virus. Students had to learn through online platforms meant to enhance continued learning.…

In this study, the aim is to examine how special education provided for students within inclusive education has continued at home during the pandemic. This study has employed phenomenology as the research method because this design enables researchers to make in-depth analysis and description. Purposeful sampling method was utilized to determine…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to virtual learning created an unprecedented context for high school and college students who had to navigate new learning structures amidst immense health, financial, and emotional challenges. In the absence of reliable data, practitioners and policymakers have been forced to make assumptions about what…

Traditional definitions of school readiness have focused primarily on the skills, knowledge and abilities children need for educational success. However, these definitions have evolved in recent years to encompass a multidimensional view, adding physical and mental health, social and emotional skills, executive functioning and self-regulation, and…

It has been two years since Mike DeWine was sworn in to serve as Ohio's 70th governor, joined by Jon Husted as lieutenant governor. From the very beginning, Governor DeWine requested that his Cabinet listen carefully to the people of the state and then proceed to act with a sense of urgency to change Ohio. In 2019, Chancellor Randy Gardner began…

In January 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. issued Executive Order 14000, "Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers," "to ensure that students receive a high-quality education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to support the safe reopening and continued operation of…