Seclusion and Restraint of Students With Disabilities: A 1-Year Legal Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela M.T. Prince ◽  
June Gothberg

News of teenager’s death in California shocked the special education community in early December 2018. Despite the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act’s provision for positive behavior supports for students with disabilities, these inidividuals continue to be secluded and restrained at disproportionately higher rates than their nondisabled peers. Using the Special Ed Connection® database, the authors identified 11 court cases from 2018 and analyzed their contents based on individualized education program (IEP) behavior components, type of restraints used, and prevalence of seclusion. Within these cases, all 12 included students were boys, four IEPs included behavior components, nine students were physically or mechanically restrained, and two were secluded. A review of the four cases that included the use of positive behavior supports is included.

2021 ◽  
pp. 104837132110344
Author(s):  
Ellary A. Draper

Within special education, transition is a required part of a student’s Individualized Education Program, specifically the transition from school to postsecondary life. Recently, special educators have begun to investigate best practices of transition at all levels—early intervention into school, elementary to middle school, and middle to high school. Yet in music education transition is not widely discussed for students with and without disabilities. This article includes an overview of best practices of transition in special education and provides ideas on how to implement these practices in music education to better facilitate transition between schools to postsecondary life for students with disabilities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Greene

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) requires that an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for students with disabilities, age 16 years and older, include age appropriate transition assessment results aligned with measurable postsecondary goals. This section of the IEP is typically known as an Individual Transition Plan (ITP). A recent investigation found a number of ITPs did not meet the requirements of the IDEA. To support special education teachers in writing IDEA-compliant ITPs, this article presents suggestions for developing quality ITPs with specific emphasis on transition assessment. Discussion includes potential explanations for the lack of quality in presenting transition assessment results, recommendations for conducting transition assessment, transition assessment resources, and examples of quality and IDEA-compliant ITPs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mindy E. Lingo ◽  
Kendra L. Williams-Diehm ◽  
James E. Martin ◽  
Amber E. McConnell

Special education teachers report lack of time and a shortage of appropriate curricula as reasons impeding implementation of transition education in their classrooms. However, research indicates school and postschool outcomes of students with disabilities improve significantly with transition instruction. The ME! Lessons for Teaching Self-Awareness and Self-Advocacy materials and activities were developed to teach students to understand their disability and abilities, rights and responsibilities, and self-advocacy skills, which are all critical self-determination components. This article details a time-efficient means to teach the essence of the ME! Lessons using ME! Bell Ringers, which include instruction in self-advocacy, student involvement in individualized education program (IEP), and disability awareness, using 10-min lessons that can be taught at the beginning of class in a daily or weekly format.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Sharp

Students with disabilities (SWD) are participating in supplemental online programs (SOP) and through the provisions of special education must receive specialized instruction to meet their academic potential. These students have a group of individuals, including educators, specialists, school leaders, and their own parents, collaborating to implement learning accommodations for them to support their academic success. This group is known as the Individualized Education Program Team (IEP Team). Without accommodations to the learning environment and to their learning activities, the academic achievement of SWD may be adversely impacted. The IEP Team must collaborate to create an effective Individualized Education Program (IEP) that is specially designed for their target student in the student’s current educational placement. Special Education Directors (SED) are central to the functioning of IEP Teams as they support SWD in SOP. This relationship, and the resulting provision of special education services, has not been thoroughly researched. The purposes of this mixed methods study were to identify the needs of SWD in SOP, to identify the processes used by IEP Teams to support SWD in SOP, and to determine how those processes meet the needs and support SWD in SOP. The first phase of research was a quantitative online survey of SED followed by a second phase of qualitative semi-structured interviews of selected participants which more fully elucidated current student needs and IEP Team processes that address those needs and support these students. Findings include a confidence in the established IEP Team process and in special education staff, concerns over the ability of special education staff to support or accommodate SWD in online courses, the perception that the needs of SWD in online educations settings are different than those in face-to-face settings, the perception that the SED give significant guidance to IEP Teams while allowing them independent function, and the use of the Covid-19 related increase in online learning to identify ways to better serve SWD online. This research suggests IEP Teams return to the IEP Team meeting and to the familiar process through which to do the requisite work to support SWD in online educational settings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Y. Mngo ◽  
Agnes Y. Mngo

The opinions of general education secondary school teachers in seven select schools involved in a pilot inclusive education program in the Northwest Region of Cameroon were sought. The findings reveal that most teachers in Cameroon still prefer separate special education institutions to inclusive ones. These conclusions contradict earlier research which showed that resistance to integrated classrooms was emanating from beliefs and customs. Teachers with some training on teaching students with disabilities and more experienced and highly educated teachers were more supportive of inclusive education indicating that resistance to the practice is linked to inadequate or complete lack of teachers’ preparedness. Younger, less experienced teachers with no training in special education indicated less enthusiasm regarding the benefits of inclusion, their ability to manage integrated classrooms, and teach students with disabilities. The implication of these findings for future research, institutional support systems, institutional policies, and overall instructional leadership is discussed in this article.


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