Restraint and seclusion are frequently misused in schools, leading to harmful outcomes for students. There is currently no federal law regulating these practices, which has led to inconsistencies in state and district policies. This policy paper aims to provide a brief background on current definitions, case law, and policies and provide teachers…

The process of providing students with disabilities access to an education that is of appropriate quality is still a relatively new endeavor. Students with disabilities benefit from the support of family, educators, and many other professionals addressing the inequality that is faced in school. Ultimately, progress has been achieved from…

Author Michael Wehmeyer began his career in special education shortly after the passage of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA). In those early days, he recounts, students with disability were mostly segregated from other children, and many of the adults…

Due process hearings are an established parental right and procedural safeguard as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) in resolving conflict. This process was created to ensure conflict resolution efforts have inherent challenges for school districts in how they respond to individual complaints while they continue to…

As the American Psychological Association and Division 15 committed to addressing systemic racism after the 2020 summer of racial reckoning, orchestrated political attacks that vilify pedagogical approaches aimed at addressing racial injustice have thwarted schools' efforts across the nation. Against this context, the overarching aim of this…

Background/Context: Urban educational systems have garnered focused examination as bastions of educational inequity, particularly along race and class cleavages. These systems are often cited as inefficient bureaucratic institutions plagued by financial mismanagement and political corruption that produce dismal achievement outcomes. Contemporary…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. This issue is the "50th Anniversary Edition." Contents include: (1) IDRA Milestones Across Five Decades to…

This paper explicates how statutes and case law (court cases) can be used as sources for discourse analysis when researching South African education reform through a complexity theory lens. Firstly, the law-making process is built on discourses at different levels. Secondly, discourses are manifested in case law because in order to resolve…

The aim of this essay is to advance understandings of current efforts to democratize disciplined approaches to educational innovation and improvement in the US and other countries, with a specific focus on the macro-level policy contexts of improvement research in education. In the US, earlier analyses examined these policy contexts from a…

Turkey is the only country that has twice lost cases concerning the violation of parents' freedom to ensure their children an education in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This article firstly seeks to present these court cases. It then moves to the official responses…

In "The Privateers," Josh Cowen lays bare the surprising history of tax-funded school choice programs in the United States and warns of the dangers of education privatization. A former evaluator of state and local school voucher programs, Cowen demonstrates how, as such programs have expanded in the United States, so too has the…

This paper examines and critiques the accountability movement, high-stakes testing, and their relationship to the achievement gap. Analyzing the issues in the context of Texas, the paper discusses dropout rates that were incorrectly identified and reported, the role of courts and specific court cases in high-stakes testing, ethical considerations,…

Present-day educational inequities are the result of systemic racism rooted in longstanding policies and practices. The move to achieve equity is not a new phenomenon; however, the desire to achieve educational equity has become more prevalent in national conversations. Conversations about educational equity have trickled down to the school…

A chain of interconnected events has occurred over the past four decades that can transform the lives of students with disabilities and their families. These events include the national policy shift to standards-based reform, legislative action that is reflected in reauthorizations of federal educational laws and regulations, and sustained state…

On the occasion of its sesquicentenary, which coincides with an extended period of school closures imposed due to the effects of a global virus pandemic, this paper analyses the Elementary Education Act of 1870, and in particular in relation to its implications for compulsory attendance at school. It did not introduce compulsory schooling but…