Children with disabilities and complex medical and educational needs present a special challenge for policy makers and practitioners. These children exhibit tremendous heterogeneity in their conditions and needs, requiring a varied array of services to meet those needs. Uneven public and professional awareness of their conditions and a research base marked by significant gaps have led to programs, practices, and policies that are inconsistent in quality and coverage. Parents often have to navigate and coordinate, largely on their own, a variety of social, medical, and educational support services, adding to the already daunting financial, logistical, and emotional challenges of raising children with special needs. The unmet needs of children with disabilities and complex medical and educational needs can cause great suffering for these children and for those who love and care for them. To examine how systems can be configured to meet the needs of children and families as they struggle with disabilities and complex health and educational needs, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in December 2015. The goal of the workshop was to highlight the main barriers and promising solutions for improving care and outcome of children with complex medical and educational needs. Workshop participants examined prevention, care, service coordination, and other topics relevant to children with disabilities and complex health and educational needs, along with their families and caregivers. More broadly, the workshop seeks actionable understanding on key research questions for enhancing the evidence base; promoting and sustaining the quality, accessibility, and use of relevant programs and services; and informing relevant policy development and implementation. By engaging in dialogue to connect the prevention, treatment, and implementation sciences with settings where children are seen and cared for, the forum seeks to improve the lives of children by improving the systems that affect those children and their families. This publications summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

"We hope that the lives of all children will be filled with possibility, with open horizons and rainbows into the future. Children with serious illnesses, their families, and those who care for them, confront the realization that "not everything is possible," that despite dramatic scientific and medical advances, the lifespan of some children will be shortened. This threat of premature loss heightens the sense of time for children and families alike, and challenges clinicians to create new pathways of hope for them"--

Co-enrollment programming in deaf education refers to classrooms in which a critical mass of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students is included in a classroom containing mainly hearing students and which is taught by both a mainstream teacher and a teacher of the deaf. It thus offers full access to both DHH and hearing students in the classroom through "co-teaching" and avoids academic segregation of DHH students, as well as their integration into classes with hearing students without appropriate support services or modification of instructional methods and materials. Co-enrollment thus seeks to give DHH learners the best of both (mainstream and separate) educational worlds. Described as a "bright light on the educational horizon," co-enrollment programming provides unique educational opportunities and educational access for DHH learners comparable to that of their hearing peers. Co-enrollment programming shows great promise. However, research concerning co-enrollment programming for DHH learners is still in its infancy. This volume sheds light on this potentially groundbreaking method of education, providing descriptions of 14 co-enrollment programs from around the world, explaining their origins, functioning, and available outcomes. Set in the larger context of what we know and what we don't know about educating DHH learners, the volume offers readers a vision of a brighter future in deaf education for DHH children, their parents, and their communities.

This publication contains a range of oral and written evidence taken by the Committee in relation to its inquiry into special educational needs (SEN) provision, including contributions from Baroness Warnock, DfES officials and local authorities, Ofsted, the Audit Commission, the Disability Rights Commission, SEN advisors and organisations, charities and trade unions.

This textbook provides nurses, allied health and social care professionals with the background knowledge necessary to support individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families. It is a unique and viable resource which is particularly timely, as recent decades have seen a significant change in the demographics and associated care and support needs of this population. The textbook is laid into four sections to provide a logical structure for the content with chapters developing key topic areas relevant to the field. The introductory section sets the overall context for the book and considers the importance of developing an understanding of intellectual disability as a core concept identifying philosophies and models of service that underpin health and social care across the lifespan. Communication as a basis for caring and the overall concept of person-centred caring in a multidisciplinary context is considered. The second section explores key concepts from birth to adulthood exploring the nature of intellectual disability, the child with intellectual disability and other related neurodevelopmental conditions. The third section explores adulthood to older age and considers specific health care needs, understanding behaviour and other fundamental concepts including mental health, ageing and palliative care. The fourth and final section explores the integration of health and social care addressing such issues as supporting and enabling families, education, employment, and sexuality and relationships. Edited by experienced and widely respected professionals, this textbook is written by international practitioners, educators and researchers who all play critical roles in working with individuals with intellectual disability and their families.

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of the power and promise of collaboration and system coordination -- connecting students, professionals, parents, schools and community agencies in new ways. Placing students with special needs and families in the center, collaboration and system coordination are viewed from a developmental framework from early childhood through post-high school. The book perspective helps individuals understand the complex interplay between the needs of students and collaborative skill needs of professionals along the developmental path. Key topics: How school collaboration and system coordination work, current laws that promote it with emphasis on IDEA 2004 and NCLB 2001, research that links collaboration with student and family outcomes, skills for effective collaboration between general and special educators, the role of families in school collaboration, effects of cultural and linguistic diversity, and strategies for effective collaboration and coordination from early childhood through post-secondary education, including alternative educational settings. Case examples are threaded throughout as the book urges change in how professionals think about the way education and human services agencies should respond to students who are special learners.

Contains the proceedings of the 1st- Institute for Annual Review of United Nations Affairs, New York University, 1949-