School attendance is essential for academic success. Significant loss of learning time due to chronic absenteeism critically impacts academic attainment and places students at risk for school dropout and potentially negative lifelong effects on health, education, employment opportunities, and financial stability. To resolve chronic absenteeism, it…

The following resource is an impact story of how NCSI built the capacity of Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to design a state system of support to begin addressing the special education teacher shortage. The resource provides context for the intensive technical assistance focusing on improvement science, provides qualitative and…

It is imperative that educators take a positive and preventive approach to support students and promote school safety. This article addresses the importance of identifying students who need additional mental health support and providing the highest quality support. These include best practices of emphasizing strength-based approaches, working with…

Volume 18 of "International Perspectives on Inclusive Education" offers multiple international perspectives on transitions for children and youth with diverse backgrounds and special needs. Transition approaches are viewed from early childhood through to post-secondary and into workplace settings using a unique convergence of integrating…

The Individualized Education Plan (IEP) document is a legal plan for special education which is created by a team that includes educators and you, the child's family. The IEP contains goals to promote your child's success in school and should, if needed, include goals on improving their behavior. The IEP provides information about the specifically…

Meet the needs of students who have fallen the furthest behind. Created for elementary school educators, this guide details how to implement intensive interventions at Tier 3 of the RTI at Work™ process. Discover practices and strategies to intervene successfully when students struggle with core content, as well as with foundational skills from…

Accessibly written and specifically designed for secondary schools, "Implementing Systematic Interventions" provides you with the tools you need to successfully organize for and smoothly implement schoolwide intervention strategies. Discover how to: (1) organize administrative support and leadership teams; (2) create effective…

This study of occupational therapy services to students with disabilities, 14 to 16 years of age, demonstrated effectiveness (Pierce, Spence, Sakemiller, & Roberts, 2020). The intervention approach was developed by 14 school-based occupational therapy personnel from 10 Midwestern school districts and described using grounded theory. Forty-two…

Allison Jones and Jacqueline Cossentino have taken the term child study to describe the work they do with children experiencing challenges. Their approach to child study attempts to change the typical question of "What is wrong with this child?" to "What is going on with this child?" They have created a system by which they try…

Building and maintaining positive social relationships is important to every young adult's quality of life. However, supporting the social inclusion of middle and high school students with severe disabilities can be extremely challenging. Moreover, promoting social inclusion in one classroom may have little impact on social outcomes in other…

Due to the diverse needs of young children at risk for or with developmental delays/ disabilities and their families, an interdisciplinary and collaborative team is required in schools to deliver family-centered, individualized early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) services (Division for Early Childhood of the Council for…

In this practice brief, we describe several current examples of approaches that are aimed at improving outcomes for students entering high school. Additionally, we present strategies to disrupt the negative trajectory for students with EBD, who seldom receive coordinated, individualized supports during the critical transition from middle to high…

Purpose: This study examined the impact of using a collaborative process with person-centered teams and a functional assessment of problems in the workplace to design individualized goals and self-management interventions to support young adults with disabilities. These young adults had achieved employment through a customized employment process…

Supporting interaction in inclusive settings between students with complex communication needs (CCN) and their peers requires careful planning and support. We used a multiple-probe-across-participants design to investigate the efficacy of collaborative planning and peer support arrangements to increase peer interaction in inclusive classrooms.…

The "Getting Ready" intervention aims to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships to promote positive child outcomes. This study focused on the team process and social validity of the intervention when young children displayed challenging behaviors. Qualitative analysis yielded seven themes that provided a rich description of the preschool…