The author draws on his extensive experience helping lead Congress's education efforts and later a highly respected education research concern to propose a new approach to federal education policy that expands and transforms the federal role. This new approach would significantly expand federal aid to schools that is not restricted to particular…

Students with disabilities, especially those with non-apparent conditions, are entering universities in growing numbers. Yet more and more students are going off to college unprepared to manage their disabilities, in part because their high schools are overburdened, understaffed, and uninformed to identify and support them. A recent survey of…

Public funding of private K-12 schooling through vouchers continues to be a contentious issue across the U.S., even though a solid majority of Americans continues to oppose them. The voucher plans run the risk of legal challenge for how they handle the rights of students with disabilities and whether they violate state constitutional provisions…

For decades, the supply of qualified special educators has been critically low. In 1983, the shortage of special educators was highlighted in "A Nation at Risk," and the situation remains much the same 25 years later. The most recently available data indicate that just 0.86 teachers were prepared for each available position in special…

Describes Ohio's efforts (including supplemental state legislation) to implement the new federal legislation on handicapped children and points out implications this legislation may have for all education in the areas of parental involvement and individualization of instruction. (IRT)

Prior to the mid-1970s, over one million children with disabilities were excluded from the nation's schools. In 1975, as a result of intense litigation and advocacy, Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA, P.L. 94-142), now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), mandating that public schools…

To the extent to which Connecticut is representative of other states, it can be concluded that the discrepancy between legislative enactment of Public Law 94-142 and organizational implementation may not be of extended duration. (Author/IRT)

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is one of the best conversation starters that public education has ever had. Despite (or maybe because of) its numerous flaws, people across the country--and not just educators--are talking as never before about schools, the quality of teaching, expectations, and accountability. The problem is that this law,…

Changes in services to handicapped children have served as a legislative wedge for eventually providing services to all children. This article reviews recent federal legislative provisions and principles pertaining to young children, including the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and the Education of the Handicapped Amendments of 1986.…

Although Virginia's Governor Lowell Weicker comes from a privileged background, he has drawn himself close to the people. A liberal Republican with some strong conservative values, Weicker believes privilege means sacrifice in terms of time commitment and tax effort. Weicker has spearheaded legislation to benefit learning-disabled and economically…

The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Title I) embodies a 35-year national commitment to help educate economically and educationally disadvantaged children. Enhanced achievement expectations and a resurgent child poverty rate should spur Congress to renew Title I funding by the end of 1999-2000. (14 references) (MLH)

Adam Coolidge lives with his parents in the Riverdale Local School District, which is in rural northwestern Ohio. In spring 1996, prior to enrolling Adam in kindergarten, his parents met with district representatives to discuss moving him from an early intervention program under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). His…

In this era of educational choice, school accountability, research-based practices, and commercial competition--illustrated by but not exclusive to No Child Left Behind--some schools, public and private, make claims that resemble false advertising and that some parents rely on, to their disappointment and even detriment. Moreover, the laudable…

In the Spring of 1998 the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools hired Dr. Pamela Settlegoode as an adapted physical education teacher for the coming academic year. Her job was to provide adapated PE to students with disabilities in three different schools and to draft individualized education plans (IEPs) in accordance with federal law. Soon after…

As a field, special education presents an excellent case study of the paradox of differentiation and integration, wherein we seek solutions through increased specialization but, in so doing, we redefine a problem in terms of discrete parts at the expense of the whole. As Thomas Skrtic pointed out more than a decade ago, a large and ever-widening…