Building and supporting effective special education programs School leaders and special educators are expected to be experts on all levels and types of special education law and services, types of disability, and aspects of academic and functional programming. With the increasing demands of the job and the ever-changing legal and educational climate, few feel adequately prepared to meet the demands. Trends and Legal Issues in Special Education helps you build and support timely, legally sound, and effective special education services and programs. Readers will find: the most up-to-date information on how to effectively implement special education programs, processes, and procedures examination of a wide variety of issues, from developing and implementing individual education programs (IEPs) that confer a free appropriate public education, Section 504, least restrictive environment (LRE), and successfully collaborating with parents, to issues regarding accountability, staffing, bullying, early childhood special education, multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), evidence-based practices, transition, discipline, and the school-to-prison pipeline extensive references and resources

Understanding the relationship between law, advocacy, and Special Education is crucial for those who educate and advocate on behalf of students with disabilities. Special Education Law and Policy: From Foundation to Application provides a framework for understanding and implementing the law as it applies to students with disabilities and their families. Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Murawski crafted a textbook that distills complex legal concepts into a digestible format to ensure readers understand their roles as teachers, counselors, administrators, and advocates. Their clear and accessible style of writing is intended for students and practitioners and offers case law and real-world examples to highlight the effective application of both law and policy. With contributions from experienced educators and legal professionals, readers will gather the foundational knowledge they need to support students, families, and schools. This is the text that every administrator, teacher, and advocate will want at their fingertips! Key Features: * Authentic case studies of challenging issues resolved from different perspectives * Chapter objectives and summaries to improve retention * Boxes throughout the text with key terms, concepts, and checks for understanding * Putting it in Practice and Application in Action boxes with real-world examples from case law * For Further Consideration sections at the end of each chapter with discussion questions, case law, and additional resources

Creating an Inclusive School Climate introduces school psychology stakeholders to a wealth of foundations, individualized experiences, and school improvement efforts intended to bolster the outcomes of our most vulnerable learners. As student populations grow increasingly diverse, sociocultural variables have never been more important to supporting school climate. Using an original cultural-ecological framework, this book builds on the experiences of historically underrepresented and oppressed youth to foster a socially just, strengths-based perspective for implementing school improvement efforts within multi-tiered systems. Faculty, graduate students, researchers, and professionals in the field will come away with a conceptually and methodologically sound understanding of the interrelationships between personal characteristics, culture, ecological contexts, and school climate.

Responding to the need for educational stakeholders to plan for evolving developments in policy and practice for learners with learning and behavioral disabilities, the authors in this edited collection predict what the next big things in the field will be, and offer recommendations on how to prepare for that envisioned future.

This book is designed to build and enhance educators’ knowledge about decision-making processes, including the use of multiple sources of assessment and data to inform instruction, interventions, services, and supports for all students within a comprehensive system to conduct action research. This resource demystifies, describes, and connects the data-driven decision-making process (DDDM) of action research within a schoolwide multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) framework, including descriptions, examples, and resources of phases and components of educational solution-finding within our classrooms and schools. Federal legislation such as the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act requires educators to follow policies and procedures to make data-informed decisions to support and enhance the learning of all students through action research. Action research is directly focused on the ability to connect multiple sources of assessment data with equitable, effective, evidence-based approaches, strategies, interventions, and resources to address and maximize academic, behavioral, and social emotional benefits for students. In addition, acquiring the knowledge and skills of DDDM through the systematic use of action research enables educators to actively participate not only in instructional and intervention decisions but also in the programmatic decisions for the determination of additional services, including special education, within a comprehensive system of school initiatives. A comprehensive, data-driven decision-making process utilizes the knowledge, skills, and phases of action research in classrooms and schools by all educators, including special and general education teachers, school psychologists, and related service personnel, within one system of data use in instruction, interventions, and determination of needed services and supports

Despite being the most common learning disability, dyslexia is widely misunderstood. Shrouded by myths and misperceptions, a lack of direct, practical information on dyslexia leaves many teachers and families frustrated. Well-intentioned teachers tell parents that all kids learn differently and at a different pace, but as the months turn into years, the gap between skilled readers and those who struggle widens. The antidote to wait-and-see and more-of-the-same is information. In this book, Sayeski translates research from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and education into accessible information to help teachers and parents unravel the complexities of skilled reading. Unraveling dyslexia requires an understanding of what it means to read—both the accurate recognition of words and the capacity to bring meaning to those words—and identifying where and how difficulty can occur with these processes. To do this, Sayeski situates the challenges some students experience in learning to read within the context of the development of English orthography (i.e., written language) and the history of reading instruction in the schools. Sayeski, then, presents what reading science has revealed about individual differences in reading. Within the book's final chapters, readers will find practical information on how to provide the type of structured literacy instruction required to put students with dyslexia on the path to reading. This book is designed for teachers, administrators, and parents seeking information that can be immediately applied to improve the outcomes of students with dyslexia or who struggle learning to read. It is never too soon to address signs of difficulty with reading. The aim of this book is to provide readers with the knowledge they need to act now to provide students with the gift of literacy.

This book examines disproportionality in education, focusing on issues of social justice for diverse and marginalized students. It addresses disproportionality as an indicator of biased practices and uses social justice as the frame for conceptualizing disproportionality historically and as a means to improve educational practice. Chapters explore the historical issue of disproportionality in education; outcomes experienced by racially and ethnically diverse students and students with disabilities, including discipline, bullying, and academic achievement; and ways in which social justice can inform policy and practice to make a positive impact reducing disproportionality in education. Key areas of coverage include: Methodological and statistical concerns in disproportionality research in education. Reviews research and data on disproportionality in education (e.g., disciplinary exclusion, bullying, seclusion and restraint, corporal punishment, school-based arrests, and academic achievement). Social justice as a theoretical and legal driver for change in policy and practice. Educational assessment and intervention practices designed to address disproportionality in education. Disproportionality and Social Justice in Education is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, practitioners, and policymakers across such disciplines as clinical child and school psychology, educational psychology and teaching and teacher education, social work and counselling, pediatrics and school nursing, educational policy and politics, public health, and all interrelated disciplines.

Is that dog allowed in school? Can the miniature horse ride on the bus with my son? Must the service animal leave the classroom if the teacher is allergic? Do I need to include the service animal in the IEP? These are some of the many questions that arise when a child with disability brings a service animal to school. Service Animals in Schools: Legal, Educational, Administrative and Strategic Handling Aspects (LEASH), provides a comprehensive overview of the legal, educational, and accessibility issues surrounding service animals in schools and provides practical guidelines for addressing these concerns within an academic setting. The authors explore topics such as types of assistance animals, educational planning and IEP development, classroom integration, transition planning, and more, providing practical information about service animal use from both ends of the leash.

The latest edition of the landmark text Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities: A Label-Free Approach--designed for music education faculty, in-service music administrators, in-service music teachers, and preservice music teachers--offers a comprehensive manual and reference guide that introduces those in the field of music education to best practices when teaching music to students with differences and disabilities. Acclaimed pedagogues and clinicians Alice Hammel and Ryan Hourigan addresses a variety of topics such as research-based strategies for methods courses, practical approaches for in-service music educators, and professional development grounded in research, special education law, and best practice. Like previous editions, a core focus this book is that a student with differences and disabilities is an individual who deserves a music education that is free of labels. This philosophical premise of a label-free approach is centered in the preservation of the individual personhood of each student. Through this approach, music educators will be able to gain and advocate for support, understand their rights and responsibilities, and offer an affective and effective music education for students with and without disabilities. This includes learning strategies for effective collaboration with special educators, teacher educators, and classroom teachers. The authors also include curriculum development ideas, lesson plan strategies, observation strategies (methods classroom), and practical ideas (methods classroom).

Creating Positive Elementary Classrooms: Preventing Behavior Challenges to Promote Learning includes straightforward, feasible, and evidenced-based strategies designed to prevent behavior problems in K-5 classrooms. With an exclusive classroom focus, this practitioner-friendly book encourages teachers to be proactive in classroom management and guides them through the process of setting up their classrooms to maximize learning while focusing on prevention of behavior challenges. Its emphasis on catching behavior problems before they occur enables teachers to run their classrooms more efficiently and experience less frustration, while also increasing student learning. A well-organized, systematic, and predictable teaching environment helps to prevent challenging behaviors, and this book presents ways to achieve this type of classroom environment. Using real-life classroom scenarios, this guide equips teachers with management techniques that break the common cycle of frustration, aggression, rejection, and hostility, so they can create positive elementary classrooms.