Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. Restraint and seclusion (R/S) are practices employed by schools to address severe student behavior. Although the use of R/S has been shown to have harmful impact for students, staff, and schools, there is no federal law that addresses its use in schools. A lack of a universal approach leaves each state to determine its own legislation and policy. The current study seeks to extend previous research efforts on state policy guidance and legislation reviews on the use of R/S by reporting on key similarities and differences across states policy guidance and leg ..read more

Exceptional Children, Volume 90, Issue 3, Page 209-216, April 2024 ..read more

Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. The purpose of this quantitative systematic literature review was to identify and describe published mathematics studies from 1980 to 2021 that incorporated a self-monitoring component (k = 22 studies; N = 1,787 students). We examined specific self-monitoring procedures, instructional contexts, implementation variables, and methodological quality. For inclusion, studies needed to (a) include self-monitoring (defined as students observing, evaluating, and/or recording their behaviors), (b) include co-occurring mathematics instruction, (c) include at least o ..read more

Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. Under federal law, parents have the right to decline, or waive, English language support services when their child is identified as an English learner (EL) in school. In this study, we focus on this important subgroup of ELs—referred to as waived ELs—at the understudied intersection of EL status and special education (SPED) status. Using longitudinal statewide Tennessee data from 2010 to 2021, we used discrete-time hazard modeling to explore ELs’ representation in SPED services by their English language service waiver status (i.e., ever-waived EL vs. never ..read more

Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. One of the most well-known instructional methods used to enhance Chinese character reading (CCR) is Chinese stem-deriving instruction (CSDI). In this method, CCR is taught via a group of characters (e.g., 清, 情, and 靚) that share the same stem (e.g., 青). However, the effectiveness of CSDI on the CCR of Chinese children with dyslexia remains inconsistent, and the reason may be the diverse designs of this method across studies. Thus, this study aimed to use a quasiexperiment-design study to compare the effects of various forms of CSDI based on the (in)consist ..read more

Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. As instructional leaders, principals establish a vision of effective instruction in their schools and support that vision through evaluation and development efforts. Thus, their beliefs about instruction in special education may have direct consequences for special educators and their students. Though research suggests principals lack experience and knowledge regarding special education, few studies explore these beliefs in action. Informed by Kennedy's theory of working knowledge, we used two distinct interview methods to tap into principals’ expressed be ..read more

Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. Youth with and at risk for disabilities served in alternative education settings frequently struggle with the writing process, which impedes their ability to communicate ideas and opinions with others. Providing explicit teaching of a writing strategy is necessary for this population of youth. This study examined the effects of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) with self-determination skills on self-advocacy-focused writing probes (e.g., persuasive) for adolescent female youth in a juvenile justice setting. Emphasis was placed on teaching youth ho ..read more

Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. The effectiveness of Tier 2 interventions may depend on the variability of student skills within an intervention group. We investigated the effect of pretest variability within intervention groups using data from a large-scale study of ROOTS, a Tier 2 kindergarten mathematics intervention. Our research questions were as follows: Does mathematics pretest variability within ROOTS groups predict student gains from the intervention, and is this relationship moderated by (a) intervention group size (two- vs. five-student groups), (b) quality of explicit instruc ..read more

Exceptional Children, Ahead of Print. As more schools adopt inclusive practices, the need for schools to understand how students perceive these practices grows. The current study explores K–12 students’ perceptions of co-teaching through a systematic review and thematic analysis of the literature. Through an analysis of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research from journals and dissertations, this review shows the importance of attending to contextual variables surrounding co-teaching and how these may serve as mediating factors for students’ perceptions. Using an open-ended date ..read more

Exceptional Children, Volume 90, Issue 2, Page 100-109, January 2024 ..read more