Highly Mobile Children and Youth with Disabilities: Policies and Practices in Five States
This brief from
Project Forum focuses highly mobile children with disabilities and their families. The document begins with a background section that provides information about policies and practices developed for mobile children at the federal level. The second section is an analysis of interviews with five state directors of special education and their corresponding McKinney-Vento program coordinators regarding how states are addressing the needs of this population. Interviewees discussed causes of mobility; how they locate mobile children; the number of mobile children and costs of services; features of state programs under McKinney-Vento; how they track outcomes; challenges they have encountered; and policy recommendations.
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Highly Mobile Children and Youth with Disabilities: Policies and Practices in Five States.
Homelessness and Students with Disabilities: Educational Rights and Challenges
Identifying Special Education Decision Makers for Children in Foster Care: State Law Questions
This brief from the
The Legal Center for Foster Care and Education dissects federal special education law and identifies areas where states can determine how the federal law will be implemented in their state. The brief can assist anyone who has struggled with understanding how various states have different processes and procedures for determining who is the special education decisionmaker for a child, wants to identify what areas of state law or policy may need to be clarified to more effectively implement the federal law, and wants to engage in discussions in states and jurisdictions about what would be the right policy and practice for their state.
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Identifying Special Education Decision Makers for Children in Foster Care: State Law Questions.
Legal Center on Foster Care and Education Special Education
Letter to State Directors of Special Education on Ensuring a High-Quality Education for Highly Mobile Children, Nov. 10, 2022
This letter and list of resources provides guidance and describes several important principles that states, school districts, school staff, parents, families, and others may find helpful in ensuring that highly mobile children with disabilities receive required special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs in a timely manner. It provides clarity on expedited evaluation timelines, RTI/MTSS processes, the transfer of records, and comparable summer services for students experiencing homelessness.
View the Letter to State Directors of Special Education on Ensuring a High-Quality Education for Highly Mobile Children.
National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE)
National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)
NCLD works to improve the lives of the 1 in 5 children and adults nationwide with learning and attention issues by empowering parents and young adults, transforming schools, and advocating for equal rights and opportunities.
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National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) website.
Unlocking Potential: What Educators Need to Know About Homelessness and Special Education
Unlocking Potential: What Families and Shelters Needs to Know About Homelessness and Special Education
This brief from
Project HOPE provides families experiencing homelessness and service providers who work with these families an overview of the special education process. It includes a table outlining the steps in the special education eligibility process and what families and service providers can do to make the process easier, resources to assist families or youth when special education services are being pursued, and definitions of words commonly used by educators and local homeless education liaisons.
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Unlocking Potential: What Families and Shelters Needs to Know About Homelessness and Special Education.
U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)