H. Rutherford Turnbull

Applying Positive Behavior Support and Functional Behavioral Assessment in Schools

Positive behavior support (PBS) and functional behavioral assessment (FBA) are two significant concepts of the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These two concepts are not new, but they are important for improving the quality of efforts to educate children and youth with disabilities. The purposes of this article are to describe (a) the context in which PBS and FBA are needed and (b) definitions and features of PBS and FBA. An important message is that positive behavioral interventions and supports involve the whole school, and successful implementation emphasizes the identification, adoption, and sustained use of effective policies, systems, data-based decision making, and practices. Systems-level challenges are also discussed.

Impacts of Poverty on Quality of Life in Families of Children with Disabilities

This review of the literature examines the impact of poverty on the quality of life in families of children with disabilities. Twenty-eight percent of children with disabilities, ages 3 to 21, are living in families whose total income is less than the income threshold set by the U.S. Census Bureau. This review found a variety of impacts of poverty on the five dimensions of family, including health (e.g., hunger, limited health care access); productivity (e.g., delayed cognitive development, limited leisure opportunities); physical environment (e.g., overcrowded and unclean homes, unsafe neighborhoods); emotional well-being (e.g., increased stress, low self-esteem); and family interaction (e.g., inconsistent parenting, marital conflict over money). Implications of the findings for policy, research, and practices are suggested.

What Do Students with Disabilities Tell Us about the Importance of Family Involvement in the Transition from School to Adult Life

This qualitative study used focus groups to explore student perspectives on family involvement in the transition from school to adult life. Four focus groups, including students with learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, and mild mental retardation, identified pertinent issues concerning how families influence the development of a personal vision for the future, how students with disabilities perceive family involvement in transition planning, and how families influence the development of student self-determination. Results showed the importance to students of family input and support. Implications for transition planning, family roles for support during adulthood, and family-student-school partnership models are discussed.

A Quality of Life Framework for Special Education Outcomes

The national goals of higher expectations for all students and their emphasis on academic achievement are reviewed in light of the data on outcomes for students with disabilities. A new framework for measuring outcomes along the lines of quality of life is proposed. The framework regards academic goals as the means for achieving other outcomes, namely the four outcomes that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) declared: equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. We propose that the underlying goal of education should be to enhance the quality of life of students with disabilities and that the four overarching IDEA goals, as implemented in part by the emphasis on academic achievement, should guide the curriculum and all assessment measures.

Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Reauthorization Accountability and Personal Responsibility

The reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a school-reform law closely aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB); a civil rights law; and a “cousin” of the 1996 welfare reform law. By imposing new or strengthened accountability expectations on students with disabilities and their parents, the reauthorized IDEA conveys a message about personal responsibilities. In that respect, it makes accountability—the hallmark of NCLB, and one of the core concepts in the original (1975) and all subsequent authorizations of IDEA—a bilateral concept: Congress, the SEAs, and the LEAs will assume shared responsibilities for educating students with disabilities and benefiting their parents, but the students and their parents must take on more responsibilities for their own behavior and for their relationships with the SEAs and LEAs.

Perspectives of Dentists, Families, and Case Managers on Dental Care for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities in Kansas.

The status of dental care for individuals with developmental disabilities in Kansas was examined. Dentists, family members, and case managers reported general, but partial, satisfaction with the availability, accessibility, appropriateness, and affordability of such care. Reasons for the results and recommendations for further improvement are discussed.

Access to Health Care for Individuals With Developmental Disabilities From Minority Backgrounds

In this project we examined access to health care by individuals with developmental disabilities in Kansas from low-income populations and from minority backgrounds. Four criteria for determining access were employed: availability, accessibility, affordability, and appropriateness of care. Factors that pose barriers and that facilitate access are described and recommendations are set out, with particular reference to the 2002 Report of the Surgeon General of the United States, related to health status of people with mental retardation.

Five Models for Thinking About Disability Implications for Policy Responses

This article advances five models for thinking about disability. Each has various degrees of relevance to policy, and each reflects various disciplines that affect policy. The article defines each model, indicates the disciplines or other sources of the model, and demonstrates the relevance of each to policy. The five models are Human Capacity, Public Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethical and Philosophical Studies, and Technology Studies.

A Case for Adding a Social—Behavioral Standard to Standards-Based Education With Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support as Its Basis

A B S T R A C T There is a growing recognition of the importance and effectiveness of instruction not only in academics but also in social and character development. This new understanding has provided the impetus for reforming how schools address behavior and discipline to foster an environment that facilitates learning. Attention to standards-based education, though currently focused exclusively on academic learning, provides a tried and tested conceptual approach to student achievement that can be used to adopt a social and behavioral standard for holding schools accountable for providing an environment that facilitates learning. Efforts to align special and general education systems provide a context in which a social—behavioral standard and its indicators can be addressed. Instruction and assessments that encompass the individualized approach of special education as well as the school improvement and accountability approach of standards-based education can then be referenced against new social— behavioral standards and indicators. This article analyzes current policy and recommends schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) as a specific strategy to form the basis for such standards. SWPBS provides an empirically validated means for integrating essential social—behavioral development pedagogy into current curricular and instructional efforts to produce higher academic achievement for all students.

A brief overview of special education law with focus on autism.

This article reviews the provisions of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as they apply particularly to students with autism. It also refers to the antidiscrimination provisions of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments (Sec. 504) and to their relevance to students with autism. It attempts to answer specific questions posed by the National Academy of Science.