People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have experienced involuntary and inhumane research practices. Consequently, researchers have shifted towards excluding those with IDs; caregivers, teachers, or peers compose study samples, dominating a space they indirectly experience. Researcher bias regarding intellectual capacity has resulted in a unique research gap that overlooks insights from the population the research is intended to benefit. People with ID are interested in research participation and have a right to be included in decision-making that impacts them. Emancipatory inquiry allows school psychology scholars to center student voices while also promoting social justice. Emancipatory inquiry empowers the "subjects" of social inquiry by producing knowledge that directly benefits disenfranchised populations. Emancipatory inquiry aligns with the social justice frame of DisCrit, which compels us to privilege the voices of marginalized populations and recognize that many of the gains for disabled populations have largely occurred because of the benefits they afford White, able-bodied, middle-class citizens. Using Emancipatory inquiry, school psychology scholars can prepare trainees and future researchers to conduct ethically sound research, prioritize first-person voices of those with ID, provide socially valid services to students and their families, and move school psychology closer to partnership with the disabled community.

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are at an elevated risk for exposure to bereavement, persistent negative mental health effects after loss, and layered and traumatic forms of grief. Despite this increased risk, students with IDD are too-frequently overlooked by school-based mental health professionals, leaving educators, community members, and family members without needed support. There are actionable steps that school-based mental health providers can take to adapt existing approaches to grief support and build consultee capacity to intervene with individuals with IDD. This paper reviews terminology surrounding the concept of grief, summarizes biases about IDD that have contributed to care disparities, and offers considerations for including grieving students with IDD in mental health consultation .

BackgroundStudents with Intellectual Disability undergo frequent cognitive testing. Testing with this population is limited by insensitivity to relative strengths and weaknesses due to floor effects. AimThe study explored the utility of deviation scores via four case studies as a supplement to educational decision-making. MethodsFour students with Intellectual Disability completed cognitive testing. Deviation scores were calculated using age dependent raw z-score transformations to determine deviation from the standardization sample norms. ResultsThe application of deviation scores highlighted true relative strengths and weaknesses for students with Intellectual Disability rather than documenting previously known deficits. The four cases studies illustrated where deviation scores could, or could not, add value above and beyond traditional scoring. DiscussionDeviation scores can supplement placement and service decisions for students. Practical and psychometric considerations are reviewed. ConclusionThe findings highlight the usefulness of deviation scores in providing meaningful information to school- and clinic-based practitioners.

Students with intellectual disabilities (ID) and their families participate in assessment at multiple junctures of their time within schools. For families, school-based evaluations frequently provide long-awaited diagnostic clarity, access to intervention, and information for planning the next steps. Formal assessment begins with preschool-aged children with ID and other developmental delays and continues through childhood and young adulthood to help plan for their post-school lives. Research consistently upholds family involvement for individuals with ID as an invaluable contributor to improved outcomes for students. Strong family-school partnerships between the homes and schools of students with ID are associated with higher rates of academic achievement, higher overall quality of life, lower levels of stress, and decreased likelihood of participating in due process or mediation. Unfortunately, families frequently characterize their contact with the assessment process as frustrating, demeaning, and stressful, indicating that current processes may overlook or even damage collaborative partnerships between school-based staff and families. School-based professionals who are involved in the assessment process can mediate these stressful experiences for families and caregivers. As families of children with ID perceive higher levels of collaboration with assessors, they also describe assessment results as more helpful and report less stress associated with the assessment process. This chapter will review practice frameworks that are tailored to improving school–family partnership within the context of the assessment of students with intellectual disabilities.

Students with intellectual disabilities (ID) have reduced access to sexuality education at school, tasking families with filling the gap. This limited access contributes to persistent health inequities, psychosocial risk, and reduced self-determination for individuals with ID. To understand the resources that families may encounter when filling this service gap, a naturalistic scoping review and content analysis of ID-specific sexual health curricula (SHC) was conducted. This analysis found a limited number of SHC available to family members who may seek them out online, and even fewer SHC designed for the specific needs of family-led delivery. While curricula identified in this study generally include the minimum recommended content areas for comprehensive sexuality education, they less frequently provide actionable guidelines for caregivers tasked with adapting teaching practices and outcomes assessment to the diverse profiles of students with ID. By understanding the SHC available to families of students with ID, school psychologists can improve their partnerships with families, disseminate needed resources, implement collaborative intervention practices, and advocate for inclusive sexuality education practices.

Identity is both derived from individual characteristics and group membership. It has been connected to improved physical, emotional, academic, occupational, and psychological wellbeing. While there have been significant gains in acknowledging the critical role identity plays in positive life outcomes for various marginalized and oppressed groups, one population has largely been ignored in discussions of identity: individuals with intellectual disability (ID). Positive disability identity, formed out of interconnectedness with others who have shared similar experiences and protective against stigma and bias, has been linked to increased self-esteem, self-acceptance, sense of self, sense of belonging, sense of pride and reduced internalized ableism. However, individuals with ID have reported avoiding identifying themselves as having a disability or avoiding others with ID. For too long, academics within service-oriented disciplines have contributed to a culture of surviving rather than thriving for individuals with ID. In order to authentically partner with individuals with ID to improve life outcomes, we must make a concerted effort to reframe our lens and language and engage in identity-affirming work. This manuscript identifies barriers to identity development for individuals with ID, their impact on long-term outcomes, and strategies that academics can use to foster positive identity development for this population.

Best practices for technology use in academic settings, specifically those preparing students for postsecondary transition (ages 18-21) are not well documented and research studies commenting on the use of technology for acquisition of social and adaptive skills is limited. Literature indicates that students with mild-moderate intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) benefit from adaptive-skills programs and curricula. School psychologists, special educators, and school-based interventionists are in a unique position to provide adaptive skill services and tier-3 interventions that are evidence-based, innovative, and serve the most vulnerable students. This manuscript utilizes a sign-case design to test the use of virtual reality (VR) as an individualized intervention and teaching modality to a student in a center-based high school program with IDD. Results yield promising findings, indicating those with IDD may master VR as a tool, learn new skills with VR programming, and generalize those skills to real-world settings. Further, VR offers unique benefits that can shape the way school interventionists view technology and how innovative practices can be used for students with IDD.

Students with intellectual disabilities (ID) are often neglected in suicide prevention and intervention programming within schools. School mental health providers, who play a pivotal role in implementing suicide prevention and intervention, must intervene when students with ID express suicidal thoughts and actions. Several strategies and adaptations can assist school mental health providers to better serve this population. This chapter will review suicide risk factors, discuss assessment practices, and recommend prevention practices to provide appropriate prevention and intervention supports for students with ID who may be struggling with suicidal ideation.

Students have dreams and goals outside of school. School psychologists can play a vital role in helping students with disabilities reach their dreams, particularly when the dreams ask the question “What do I want to do after high school?” Often, the answer lies in postsecondary goals, which require transition planning while the student is still in school. This paper explores how families, teachers, and school psychologists can all play supportive and distinct roles in helping a student with disabilities reach their postsecondary goals. There have been several transition models proposed to help students with disabilities shift from PK-12 to postsecondary settings; however, there are gaps in application for the most important team members: student, family, teacher, and school psychologist. Lastly, this paper proposes a new transition framework, Creating a Roadmap: Providing Opportunities for Optimal Living (CAR:POOL), that focuses specifically on the concrete steps a transition team needs to complete postsecondary goals.

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are incredibly vulnerable to poor post-school outcomes. Two mandates, the Higher Education Opportunity Act and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, have emerged that may provide avenues to counter the discrepancy between the desire for career and college paths and actualization of employment and enrollment. The authors explore these legislative acts, their impact on transition services for students with IDD, and how school personnel can collaborate to create family, school, and community partnerships. Based on these acts, a practice framework, and the unique transition needs of students with IDD, practice recommendations are provided. Specific strategies for promoting application of these laws in the school setting are offered. Special attention is given to the partnership between special educators and school psychologists to help them navigate the legal implications for students with IDD and their families.

This chapter offers strategies to foster a coordinated and consistent network of supportive services between homes, schools, and communities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). A multitiered Family-School-Community Partnering (FSCP) framework is used to review universal laws and policies impacting families with very young children and youth with IDD who are transitioning away from the school system. The main focus is on targeted and intensive partnering practices that stress building relationships, the development of a welcoming culture, the importance of effective communication, and the need for greater mutual understanding of the intersectionality of IDD when supporting culturally and linguistically diverse children and families within a comprehensive service delivery system.

Abstract Racist rhetoric blaming the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAAPI) community for the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a surge of violence against the AAAPI community in the United States, including the Atlanta mass shooting on March 16, 2021. These incidents resurfaced the ongoing racism against AAAPIs that has largely been unaddressed despite lasting almost 2 centuries. The erasure of AAAPIs’ historical oppression, unique cultures, languages, immigration experiences, and contributions to scientific and social justice advancement in the United States has hindered AAAPI voices from being heard. School psychologists are ethically bound to promote equity and dismantle racism; it is imperative to increase visibility of AAAPIs’ experiences across training levels (P–12 and graduate programs), settings, and systems. In this unified statement, school psychology organizations have come together to reaffirm the field’s commitment to anti-racism by offering proactive strategies to effectively promote visibility and equity for AAAPI students, families, and communities. Impact Statement Although there has been a complete absence of discussion of anti-AAAPI racism and anti-racism in school psychology, the field is actively committed to dismantling systemic racism and inequalities in P–12 schools, institutions of higher education, and communities across our nation. This statements seeks to address this absence by providing (a) a much-needed starting point for school psychologists to learn about the history of discrimination, racism, and violence targeting AAAPIs in the United States that has been virtually unaddressed; (b) a critical context for the recent rise in COVID-19-related anti-AAAPI violence while shedding critical light on the deep-seated racism that has oppressed AAAPIs for centuries in America; and (c) beginning strategies that school psychology faculty members, practitioners, and students can engage in to dismantle anti-AAAPI racism across individual and systems levels.

School psychologists pay a critical role in the assessment and intervention of students in special education. Within this role, they are highly likely to interact with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), particularly in the context of school-based assessment associated with special education. Although students with IDD frequently interface with school psychologists during the evaluation process, they continue to face significantly poorer post-school outcomes and family school partnerships than their peers within and outside of special education. Following a content analysis and review of assessment-specific issues, population-specific needs, and previously proposed assessment models, the Collaborative-Adaptive Student-Centered (CASC) framework is proposed. This theoretical framework utilizes a content analysis of practice-oriented approaches that target assessment in order to improve the outcomes experienced by students with IDD and facilitate role expansion for school psychologists. Following a discussion of the CASC framework and associated practice tools, this paper reviews implications of a shift in assessment practices for students with IDD, their families, and school-based practitioners. Barriers to implementation of the CASC framework are also discussed.

The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to present the results of a study examining the current status of performance evaluations for school psychologist and (b) to use those findings to inform future directions. A content analysis of a national sample of 36 performance appraisal rubrics was conducted to examine their alignment with the professional standards established by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Among the rubrics reviewed, 88.9% featured eight or more of the NASP domains of practice, yet only 56% of the rubrics featured all 10 domains, suggesting variability in the degree to which the rubrics aligned with the standards of practice, particularly for rubrics developed at the district-level. The results of this study informed the development of a 360-evaluation process based on the Framework for Personnel Evaluation of School Psychologists Utilizing the NASP Practice Model and Morrison's four key principles for evaluating the performance of school psychologists.

This chapter addresses instructional effectiveness at the graduate and undergraduate education levels. Teaching is a direct way to share our enthusiasm about the field and ensure the next generation of school psychologists. However, despite being a critical skill necessary for academic appointments and the continuation of our field, few school psychologists receive specific training prior to starting a faculty position in the area of teaching. This chapter posits that teaching is as valuable to academia as research and service and should be done with both passion and effectiveness. The act of teaching is broken down into why we teach, how to teach, and what to teach when educating future practitioners and scholars. The importance of instructional excellence is discussed, as are models, philosophies, and assessments of teaching. Considerations for content and curriculum development are also offered. Across each question, personal and professional suggestions are included, from coping with negative student evaluations to developing a program identity for coursework planning. To help guide readers as they choose and evaluate the teaching techniques that are the most effective in their educational setting, the logistics of teaching are deconstructed as actionable steps, real-world examples, and resource toolkits.

BACKGROUND:Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability. Prior research has primarily focused on associated medical problems and skill deficits. This study takes a novel positive psychology approach by examining critical individual characteristics and environmental factors that facilitate exceptional quality of life for people with DS.METHOD:A qualitative multiple case study design was used to document the lives of four adults thriving with DS. Thriving was defined as high subjective well-being coupled with continued personal development.RESULTS:Descriptive contexts were provided for each case along with four overarching themes: a supportive social ecology, high expectations for independence, advocacy, and strengths facilitating happiness. A new conceptual framework for understanding thriving with DS was proposed.CONCLUSIONS:These findings provide insight as to what is possible for people with DS, including ideas for future research and practice to promote thriving in the DS population.

The transition from high school to adulthood is challenging for many students, but particularly for students who hold membership in marginalized populations. College and career readiness (CCR) supports can help students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and those who have had interactions with the juvenile justice (JJ) system to find postsecondary success in a variety of areas, including employment, independent living, postsecondary education, leisure/social activities, and self-advocacy. CCR-focused consultation in the schools is a natural vehicle for improving transition planning, intervention implementation, and professional collaborations. This theme issue showcases partnerships and provides resources for practitioners, educators, and decision makers regarding CCR consultation approaches for youth with IDD, EBD, and JJ interactions.

Postsecondary transition plans and services include domains such as independent living, postsecondary employment, and postsecondary education and have positive lifelong benefits for students with intellectual disabilities (ID). School psychologists have much to contribute to the transition process, but previous studies have indicated they often have limited involvement in this domain. A survey was conducted to assess school psychologists' current knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding transition services for students with ID. Respondents included 282 practicing school psychologists from the United States and Canada. Regression results indicated that attitude, knowledge, and previous experience with the ID population were significant predictors of performance of transition-related professional behavior. Responses to open-ended questions supported the quantitative survey results and highlighted the importance of instruction (direct, informal, and experiential) in school psychologist delivery of transition services. Given this, recommendations to increase school psychologist knowledge of and positive attitudes toward transition planning and students with intellectual disabilities and their families are discussed.

OBJECTIVE:To characterize bladder and bowel toileting skill acquisition in children with fragile X syndrome and to identify associated demographic, behavioral, and clinical factors. METHODS:Using baseline data from the Fragile X Online Registry With Accessible Research Database (FORWARD), bivariate analyses and logistic regression models were used to identify differences between subjects who were and were not bowel and/or bladder trained by the age of 10 years. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the rate of completion of toilet training (TT) as a function of sex and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. RESULTS:In bivariate analyses, male sex, lower language level, inability to write one's name, more impaired intellectual level, ASD, and more severe behavioral deficits all predicted lack of bladder training (n = 313, p < 0.001) and bowel training (n = 300, p = 0.0004-0.0001) by the age of 10 years. In logistic regression models, lower level of language acquisition (p < 0.001) and higher Aberrant Behavior Checklist Irritability scores (p < 0.04) were associated with lower odds of bladder training by the age of 10 years. Lower level of language acquisition (p < 0.001) and ASD (p < 0.025) were associated with lower odds of bowel training by the age of 10 years. For both bladder and bowel training, Cox proportional hazard models indicated that delayed training was associated with male sex, lower levels of language acquisition, and ASD for both bladder training (n = 486; p < 0.001) and bowel training (n = 472; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION:These findings emphasize the importance of both slower language development and ASD diagnosis in predicting bowel and bladder training delays and can be used to develop and evaluate targeted approaches to TT based on sex, ASD diagnosis, and other clinical features identified in this study.