How Thinking in Pictures Provides Perspective - Here what Temple Grandin had to say at the 2011 ECS National Forum on Education Policy about what matters most to helping all kids succeed....

Boosting the Quality and Efficiency of Special Education - This study uses a database of information on special education spending and staffing to uncover significant variance in how districts staff for special education. The author concludes that if the highest-spending districts reduced their special education staffing to the national median the public could save $10 billion, and offers clear recommendations for improving special-education quality and efficiency. (Fordham Institute, September 2012)...

National Center on Dispute Resolution in Special Education - A resource for families who are unhappy with services being provided (or not provided) to a child with disabilities. (CADRE, January 2012)...

Research Synthesis Points on Quality Inclusive Practices - This report provides brief descriptions and supporting references for evidence-based and promising practices that support early childhood inclusion. It is organized into three major sections corresponding to the defining features of high quality early childhood: Access; participation; and infrastructure. (FPG Child Development Institute, Nov 2011)...

Do Special Education Interventions Improve Learning of Secondary Content? A Meta-Analysis - The authors describe findings from a research synthesis on content area instruction for students with disabilities. Seventy studies were identified from a comprehensive literature search, examined and coded for a number of variables, including weighted standardized mean-difference effect sizes. More than 2,400 students participated in the investigations. (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, August 2011)...

Neuroscience and Special Education - A brief overview of how links are being developed between the rapidly expanding field of neuroscience and the practice of special education. The author discusses how findings from neuroscience are being applied to the field of special education, describes outcomes from the limited research bridging the two disciplines and discusses how institutions of higher education and other organizations are creating interdisciplinary links between neuroscience and education/special education. (Eve Muller, National Association of State Directors of Special Education, July 2011)...

Twenty-Ninth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Parts B and C. 2007 - This report includes a number of informative 50-state data tables. (U.S. Department of Education, 2011)...

The World Needs All Kinds of Minds - Temple Grandin speaks about better serving kids with autism or autism spectrum disabilities and about better serving the "smart, geeky" kids who tend to be overloked but who have enormous potential for creating new technology and making important contributions to society during their lifetimes. (video)...

Surrogate Parents and Children with Disabilities: State-Level Approaches - Based on a survey of states, this document summarizes state-level approaches to using surrogate parents in order to meet the needs of children with disabilities. (Eve Muller, National Association of State Directors of Special Education, November 2009)...

Parentally Placed Private School Students with Disabilities - This document focuses on state education agency support for child find, consultation and provision of equitable service provisions for parentally placed private school students with disabilities. Project Forum completed this activity as part of its cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. Thirty five states responded to the survey. (Kim M. Sopko, National Association of State Directors of Special Education, October 2008)...

New Hampshire Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders: Findings and Recommendations - The New Hampshire Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) was created by the 2007 state legislature and charged with examining and making recommendations regarding the care, treatment and quality of life for children and adults with ASD and their families. This report presents the challenges for public policy and the guiding principles which must exist. Finally, the New Hampshire Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders made recommendations for the important first steps to begin addressing the challenges the disorder poses to the state. (New Hampshire Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2008)...

Perceptions and Expectations of Youth With Disabilities - This report provides a picture of the self-representations and expectations of youth with disabilities, how they differ across disability categories and demographic groups and how they compare with youth in the general population. The report presents findings drawn primarily from interviews or surveys from youth ages 15 through 19. The report addresses questions such as how youth with disabilities describe their feelings about themselves and their lives, their secondary school experiences, their personal relationships and their expectations for the future. (U.S. Institute of Education Sciences, August 2007)...

Standards-Based Individualized Education Program Examples - The development of Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs) is becoming increasingly important as new accountability measures are implemented. This report outlines a seven-step process to be used in developing a standards-based IEP. (Marla Davis Holbrook, Project Forum, August 2007)...

Demographic and School Characteristics of Students Receiving Special Education in the Elementary Grades - This issue brief examines the demographic and school characteristics of students receiving special education in elementary grades. Prior studies have documented the number of children receiving special education services in each year during the elementary school years by gender, race/ethnicity, and disability. (William Herring Daniel, McGrath and Jacquelyn Buckley, National Center for Education Statistics, July 2007 ...

Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities: The Promise of Universal Design for Learning - A major premise of this report is that access to the curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities is greatly enhanced by universal design. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a particular framework that applies to education. More specifically, UDL is an approach that can guide curriculum reform. A universally-designed curriculum includes multiple means of representation (to allow various ways of acquiring information and knowledge), multiple means of expression (to allow alternatives for demonstrating knowledge) and multiple means of engagement (to challenge appropriately, to motivate and to allow learners to express and participate in their interests). A number of current contrasting approaches to universal design are described. (Richard Jackson, National Center on Assessing the General Curriculum, 2007)...