In 2002, Project Forum conducted a survey on special education forms and a policy forum on the issue of paperwork in special education. Some recommendations that resulted from those activities were included in the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA. With a new reauthorization pending, the topic has again aroused interest. This document presents the…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, passed in 2001, amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and required states to adopt challenging academic content standards that specify what all students are expected to know and be able to do. The act also required states to assess all students annually in mathematics and reading/language…

A policy forum held May 11-13, 2011 to provide input from stakeholders to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) focused on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) accountability reporting system known as the State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) process. Participants discussed their assessment of the…

The National Association of State Directors of Special Education has published documents on home schooling and various aspects of the charter school movement, but not on other types of school choice such as vouchers. This Project Forum document focuses on voucher programs that are specifically designed to provide public funds for parental…

Supplemental educational services (SES) is a component of the omnibus Elementary and Secondary Education Act usually referred to as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. The law authorizes many programs besides SES, most notably Title I grants targeted to meet the needs of children in high poverty schools. As defined in the non-regulatory…

The cost of educating students with disabilities and how to fund their services have been the subject of a number of studies since 1982 that were conducted by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) and/or projects conducted by the American Institutes for Research's (AIR) Center for Special Education Finance…

Since its enactment in 1975, the federal special education law, now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), has made each state responsible for the compliance of all their local education agencies (LEAs) and other public agencies that provide special education for students with disabilities. The 2004 reauthorization of the…

This resource guide provides an overview of special-education laws and issues related to K-12 education for those interested in starting or currently operating a charter school, for host or sponsoring school districts, and for state departments of education. It is essential that charter-school operators and staff who are in any way responsible for…

This brief report presents state data from 10 years (1991-2000) on the number of special education due process hearings requested and the number actually held. It notes requirements for designing and conducting due process hearings under both federal (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and state laws. It also finds that the major…

Involving state content standards in the development of individualized education programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities--a practice most often referred to as "standards-based IEPs"--is a growing area of interest in special education. The Access Center, a federally funded technical assistance resource, is dedicated to helping…

This document contains the results of a survey of state directors of special education on the status of strategies related to improving access for students with disabilities to the general education curriculum. This activity was undertaken as part of the cooperative agreement between Project Forum at the National Association of State Directors of…

This document's primary focus is on a subset of the population of mobile children--infants, preschoolers, children and youth with disabilities and their families who are highly mobile. First, a background section provides information about policies and practices developed for mobile children at the federal level under the McKinney-Vento Program.…

This brief paper summarizes data collected by the National Association for State Directors of Special Education on state policies concerning accountability for students with disabilities receiving special education in public or private settings outside of district K-12 school buildings. It focuses specifically on participation in assessments and…

This paper describes the National State Policy Database (NSPD), a full-text searchable database of state and federal education regulations for special education. It summarizes the history of the NSPD and reports on a survey of state directors or their designees as to their use of the database and their suggestions for its future expansion. The…