Current Trends and Legal Issues in Special Education

Building and supporting effective special education programs

School leaders and special educators are expected to be experts on all levels and types of special education law and services, types of disability, and aspects of academic and functional programming. With the increasing demands of the job and the ever-changing legal and educational climate, many administrators and teachers are overwhelmed, and few feel adequately prepared to meet the demands. Trends and Legal Issues in Special Education helps you build and support timely, legally sound, and effective special education services and programs. Readers will find:

• the most up-to-date information on how to effectively implement special education programs, processes, and procedures
• examination of a wide variety of issues, from developing and implementing individual education programs (IEPs) that confer a free appropriate public education, Section 504, least restrictive environment (LRE), and successfully collaborating with parents, to issues regarding accountability, staffing, bullying, early childhood special education, multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), evidence-based practices, transition, discipline, and the school-to-prison pipeline
• extensive references and resources

Written as a comprehensive reference for all who work with students with disabilities, this book offers the most up-to-date research and field-tested strategies from a range of experts that special education professionals can confidently and immediately apply. 

David F. Bateman, Ph.D., is a professor at Shippensburg University in the Department of Educational Leadership and Special Education where he teaches courses on special education law, assessment, and facilitating inclusion. He is a former due process hearing officer for Pennsylvania for over 580 hearings. He uses his knowledge of litigation relating to special education to assist school districts in providing appropriate supports for students with disabilities and to prevent and to recover from due process hearings. He has been a classroom teacher of students with learning disabilities, behavior disorders, intellectual disability, and hearing impairments, and a building administrator for summer programs. Dr. Bateman earned a Ph.D. in special education from the University of Kansas. He has recently co-authored the following books: A Principal’s Guide to Special Education, A Teacher’s Guide to Special Education, Charting the Course: Special Education in Charter Schools, and the forthcoming Special Education Leadership: Building Effective Programming in Schools.

Mitchell L. Yell, Ph.D., is the Fred and Francis Lester Palmetto Chair in Teacher Education and a Professor in Special Education at the University of South Carolina. His professional interests include special education law, positive behavior support, IEP development, and parent involvement in special education. Dr. Yell has published 124 journal articles, 4 textbooks, 26 book chapters, and has conducted numerous workshops on various aspects of special education law, classroom management, and progress monitoring. His textbook, Special Education and the Law, is in its 5^th edition.  He also serves as a State-level due process review officer in South Carolina.  Prior to working in higher education, Dr. Yell was a special education teacher in Minnesota for 16 years.