DeAnn Lechtenberger

Student IEP Participation and Academic Achievement Across Time

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates that students with disabilities be provided the necessary special education and related services that will allow them the benefit of a free and appropriate public education. Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are the product of a team planning process that facilitates the coordination of such services for all students with disabilities in public schools who receive special education services. The purpose of the current study was to examine the association of student IEP participation with academic achievement across time. Although research has indicated the potential value of student participation in IEP meetings in developing self-determination skills, the relationship between student participation in IEP meetings and academic achievement has yet to be empirically examined. This article provides evidence that supports a positive association between student IEP participation and academic outcomes for students with disabilities at the elementary school level.

Measuring College Students' Attitudes toward Requesting Accommodations: A National Multi-Institutional Study.

College students with disabilities represent an increasing population of nontraditional students that often experience difficulty in achieving in higher education. This difficulty appears to be related to students with disabilities needing to request accommodations in higher education, unlike in elementary and secondary education where accommodations are provided. In the current study, an instrument, the Attitudes Toward Requesting Accommodations (ATRA), was developed to measure attitudes toward requesting accommodations among college students with disabilities. The results of the current study indicate evidence in support of the sound psychometric properties of the ATRA so that it may be utilized by higher education administrators concerned with the achievement and retention of college students with disabilities.

The Significant Role of Schools in Transforming Children's Mental Health in America

Education (2003), during the 2001 to 2002 school year, 476,908 American children and youth attending public schools received special services under the category of serious emotional disturbance (SED), which is also referred to as emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) in the research literature. It has been estimated that there are as many as 9 million children in the United States identified with SED (Friedman, Katz-Levey, Manderscied, & Sondheimer, 1996). This estimate is destined to climb within the next 50 years as the number of children and youth with mental disorders climbs from 20% to nearly 50% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999.