Antonis Katsiyannis

Clemson University | CU · Special Education

By being public entities, Charter schools must meet federal legislative mandates (e.g., Section 504) in providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to students with disabilities—just as their traditional district public school counterparts must do. This legal update reviews a prominent case, Lawton et al. v. Success Academy Charter Schools...

In 2019, about 22% of students ages 12–18 reported being bullied, with a higher percentage of female students than male students reporting victimization. Recent empirical reports indicate that students with disabilities are more likely to experience bullying and be punished for bullying. Bullying has been linked to increased risk for experiencing s...

OBJECTIVES Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis. In 2019, gun injury became the leading cause of death among children aged birth to 19 years. Moreover, the United States has had 57 times as many school shootings as all other major industrialized nations combined. The purpose of this study was to understand the frequency of sc...

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the ways in which school districts provide educational services to all students, especially students with disabilities. Eligible students with disabilities have a right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and students with disabilities who are not...

Objectives The persistent disproportionate representation of minority students in special education, either over- or underrepresented, spans decades. This study aims to explore minority representation in special education between 2016 and 2020. Methods Growth models were utilized to analyze 5-year data from the Data Accountability Center, U.S. Cen...

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard several cases regarding special education. These cases have resulted in decisions that have addressed issues involving special education programming and procedural issues. On March 21, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools. This decision, which was the most recent...

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs collects information from all states on the education of students with disabilities, including the number of students that exit special education and transfer back to general education. Yet, little is known about students that are declassified. In this study, we used data from...

Background: Individuals with intellectual disabilities need continued supports in completing daily living tasks to increase the likelihood of achieving independence. Fortunately, research has shown that assistive technology, and particularly video prompting helps support independent living for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Aims: Th...

Although functional behavioral assessments and behavior intervention plans (FBA-BIP) are standard practices for students with disabilities, the research base on the nature of FBA-BIPs is limited as most record reviews were conducted before 2010. We examined key compliance components of FBA-BIPs for 304 students with disabilities in one large local...

Thirty-one states have laws that may result in students being arrested for misbehavior in school that is often considered low-level rule violations. The problems with these laws include the vagueness and subjectivity of the language of the law. As a result, the enforcement of such laws has been criticized as being discriminatory, especially against...

The historical and systematic issues that surround inequity in public schools can be traced back throughout America’s legislative history. Over the last several decades, a reckoning has begun in regard to social justice throughout many aspects of American society, and in the last several years, social justice, particularly, has come under attack th...

Bullying is a widespread issue facing school-aged youth, where millions of students experience bullying each year in the United States. Bullying is a pervasive issue because involvement can impact all of life’s domains, including detrimental psychosocial, psychosomatic, behavioral, social, and academic outcomes. Unfortunately, research has demonstr...

Disciplinary exclusions have been a persistent concern for decades, particularly among racially and ethnically diverse students and students with disabilities. In this chapter, we discuss disparities in disciplinary exclusions and consequences of disciplinary exclusions, and we advance empirical evidence of disproportionate discipline through an in...

Research indicates that referrals to law enforcement officers in school, the school-to-prison pipeline, zero-tolerance policies, and state disorderly laws have contributed to youths’ exposure to the juvenile legal system, vis-à-vis school-based referrals and/or arrests. In this chapter, we draw on the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Ri...

Corporal punishment in US public schools continues to be a controversial and persistent issue. People are often shocked to learn that corporal punishment is not only allowed but also used in schools. In this chapter, we discuss (a) the legal precedence on corporal punishment, (b) the effects of corporal punishment on children, and (c) the dispropor...

Objectives Gun violence in the USA is a pressing social and public health issue. As rates of gun violence continue to rise, deaths resulting from such violence rise as well. School shootings, in particular, are at their highest recorded levels. In this study, we examined rates of intentional firearm deaths, mass shootings, and school mass shootings...

The present study was conducted to determine whether the problem characteristics of students school-identified with emotional disturbance (ED) have changed over two decades. We used data from a teacher rating instrument designed to measure the five problem characteristics of ED, as stated in its Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) de...

In special education, medication often plays a critical role in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. The use of medications in schools, however, can be a problem when state laws and federal law conflict regarding the use of a medication, in this situation medical marijuana. This column reports on a ruling in the U.S. District Court in N...

For years, the research and policy focus on Black students with emotional disturbance (ED) has been on racial disproportionality. The disproportionality issue has sparked professional debate and raised major questions about racial bias, cultural fairness, appropriateness of assessment instruments, the adequacy of special education programs, poverty...

https://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 23852

Objectives Bullying is a widespread problem in schools that has been linked to poor psychological, social, and academic outcomes for school-aged children. Individual risk factors such as disability status, race/ethnicity, and gender increase the likelihood of involvement in bullying behaviors. The purpose of this study was to explore disproportiona...

Objectives In 2017–2018, a total of 101,990 students were physically restrained, mechanically restrained, or secluded; students with disabilities accounted for 78% of all students physically and/or mechanically restrained. Given the disproportionate use of seclusion and restraint on students with disabilities, this population is at higher risk for...

Objectives Incidences such as students committing shootings, fighting with teachers and other students, perpetrating sexual assault, and bringing weapons to schools are concerning for administrators, teachers, and the public. To respond to such situations school officials have increasingly been using exclusionary and aversive measures as well as ex...

Qualified employees with disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The demanding nature of the teaching profession presents a particularly challenging context for accommodations; therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine litigation on accommodating teachers with disabiliti...

Ensuring the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to students qualified for services under the disability category of emotional disturbance (ED) has been both challenging and controversial. Examining this population in light of the five characteristics listed in the federal definition may provide useful insights to address needs...

Five days after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision in M.C. v. Antelope Valley Union High School District. This important decision involved a student who was being served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (...

Qualified teachers with disabilities are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To maintain legal compliance, principals must have an understanding of employment law, but often lack the training to prevent legal liability. This study reviewed litigation on discrimination claims under the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Ac...

The Latinx population is the largest group of racially and ethnically diverse students in the United States. Although disproportionality in school discipline has been documented for Latinx students, findings related to such disparities have been inconsistent. We examined disciplinary exclusion practices involving students with and without disabilit...

Objectives To examine disproportionality in the use of restraint and seclusion for students with disabilities compared with their peers, for boys compared with girls, and for students of color, specifically Black and Hispanic students, compared with White students.Methods We used the 2015–2016 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), in which 21% (n =...

Maintaining a safe and orderly school environment is challenging. In response, some schools resort to aversive punishments, including corporal punishment. Limited research has examined whether or not corporal punishment is disproportionately administered to certain students, particularly students with disabilities and black and Hispanic students. T...

Objective The purpose of this paper was to review school discipline litigation involving school resource officers. Specifically, the authors sought to determine whether the courts have found school resource officers to be acting within the parameters of their job. Method Authors searched Nexus Uni and Google Scholar to identify cases that matched...

Objectives The objective of this study was to assess the rates of disciplinary exclusion for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students with and without disabilities, relative to Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White students, using 2015–2016 national level data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). Metho...

Objective To describe the issues associated with heightened levels of discriminatory behaviors and their effects on children and youth. We then describe efforts to ameliorate discriminatory behaviors at the school level, placing emphasis on practices that can be implemented within current school initiatives. Method We employed a thematic review ap...

We call attention to the need for supported decision-making (SDM) in place of substituted decision-making (e.g., guardianship). SDM allows individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities to make their own life choices with self-appointed supporters. Whereas there is a growing recognition that SDM is a needed practice, America’s deep...

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the current national results regarding school discipline for Black students. There are decades of data demonstrating the discriminatory discipline faced by Black children and adolescents in America’s K-12 public education system. Yet, there is limited research focusing exclusively on Black stud...

Objectives Examine pertinent case law involving the use of “excessive force” with children and youth with disabilities. In addition, legal implications for school personnel, based on these rulings, will be discussed and alternatives to using force will be explored. Methods One-hundred thirty cases from the Special Ed Connection database were inclu...

Special education has been the subject of many rulings in federal courts. These rulings have greatly affected the practice of special education. The most important of these cases have come from the U.S. Supreme Court, which thus far has heard 12 cases directly affecting special education. This article examines the most important of these special ed...

Exclusionary discipline disproportionally effect students from underrepresented groups and English Learners are one group that has received minimal attention in this area. Using data from the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection, we examined exclusionary discipline practices (i.e., suspensions and expu...

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) consistently lag behind their peers academically and behaviorally, are likely to be excluded from school, drop out more frequently, and face higher incarceration rates and a host of other negative outcomes as adults. Federal policy has played a key role in (a) ensuring that students with disabi...

School Resource Officers (SROs) have become increasingly commonplace in schools across the nation. The role and purpose of SROs in the educational setting have evolved over time, often without formalized policies or guidelines. Increasingly, SROs have been called upon to deal with school discipline issues, which has inadvertently increased the like...

Responding to calls for increased accountability regarding performance of students in public schools and concerns over the capacity of public schools to improve outcomes, school choice has become a mainstream and often controversial issue in public education; it is also a priority of the current federal government administration. Given the mixed ev...

The deadliest U.S. school shooting to date, occurring on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida serves as a powerful reminder that school violence is ever present. Addressing school violence, however, has been an elusive endeavor. The purpose of this review is to provide a historical examination of United Sta...

Firearm violence in United States has been a persistent concern for decades particularly in light of mass shootings. Firearm violence is increasingly viewed as a public health crisis, and results in a heavy financial burden to society. In light of the continuous challenges associated with firearm violence, limited research in the area, it is necess...

Even though special education law is covered in most teacher and administrative certification programs, it is an area that is continually evolving. The results of the 2017 U.S. Supreme Court case Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District will have a lasting impact on the future of special education guidelines; the outcomes of this case will also...

Engaging in physical activity is important for school-age children, as it promotes a healthy and active lifestyle. However, barriers to participation in physical education and athletics often prevent students with disabilities from engaging in these important activities. There are several legal precedents that should be considered as schools seek t...

A meta-analysis is presented of the academic achievement effects on students taught by teachers from alternative teacher preparation (ATP) programs, compared to students taught by teachers from traditional teacher preparation (TTP) programs. The literature has indicated mixed results on the student-level academic outcomes of ATP programs. Findings...

In 2014, adult correctional systems supervised an estimated 6.8 million individuals in the United States with 1 in 36 adults (or 2.8%) being under some form of correctional supervision. Unfortunately, not only are the number of individuals connected to the correctional system and the outlined disparities based on minority status worrisome, there is...

The multidimensional issue of the representation of diverse students in special education has been a persistent and challenging concern for decades. Overwhelmingly, research outlining racial and ethnic disproportionality data have historically demonstrated stability in the overrepresentation of students of color in special education. However, the g...

Self-regulatory interventions have demonstrated numerous benefits for helping improve the academic performance of students. The purpose of this review was to report on the effectiveness and focus of academic self-regulation interventions for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. Thirty-six studies published in 35 papers...

Review of Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirements including guidance letters from the Office of Special Education Difficulties that districts and states face when applying MOE Guidelines for state waivers Current litigation involving one state Recent changes to regulations and legislation and proposed change to MOE requirements

This study investigated the effects of a narrative intervention that employed repeated story retells and a Story Grammar Marker on the oral narrative skills of Spanish-speaking English learners with language impairments. Four third- and fourth-grade students participated in the study. Using a single-case multiple probe across participants design, t...

The use of aversives as a method for behavioral intervention in U.S. public schools has been a persistent concern and often subject to litigation, particularly among students with disabilities. The use of aversives (restraint, seclusion, and corporal punishment) have been supported in some cases due to their perceived necessity to keep children and...

On March 22, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District. This case addressed the question how much educational benefit are public schools required to provide to students with disabilities under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to confer a free appropriate public education...

Violence in schools remains a complex and challenging issue. In this article, we examine schools’ responsibilities in placement and the provision of services for students who have chronically exhibited dangerous behaviors. Multiple court cases have provided schools guidance in evaluating when student removal through injunctive relief for dangerous...

The current meta-analysis examined the evidence for interventions to improve compliance of students with disabilities in school settings. Experimental investigations that investigated compliance or non-compliance and took place with students in a school setting who were between birth and 23 years old were evaluated using the Council for Exceptional...

The purpose of this review is to report on the effectiveness of peer-mediated interventions on academic outcomes for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). CEC standards for evidence-based practices were used for determination of methodologically sound studies. Twenty-four studies involving 288 participants met inclusionary criteri...

In the past few years, the provision of mental health services in public schools has received considerable attention. When students with disabilities are eligible for special education and related services under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), mental health services are required if such services are needed to provide student...

Clemson University researchers have conducted a multi-agency, multi-cohort study on juvenile offending and recidivism. Important features of the study are a sample size of approximately 100,000 delinquents and 100,000 non-delinquents; the merging of data sets from a state department of juvenile justice with those of departments of mental health, so...

As of the 2013–2014 school year, about 2.5 million school-age students attended charter schools nationwide. Because charter schools are publicly funded entities, they are required to adhere to all federal nondiscriminatory laws as well as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. This legal brief provides an overview of charter schools, lega...

Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 requires that state and local agencies refrain from the discrimination of individuals with disabilities by providing them with services in the most integrated setting appropriate. Despite this mandate, state and local education agencies across the country engage in practices that could be char...

There have been an increasing number of incidents in which school resource officers (SRO) have been used to manage student disciplinary issues with disastrous results. Court cases brought by parents and advocacy groups claim SROs have traumatized and injured students. This article addresses several critical issues concerning SROs being used to mana...

Youth with disabilities have consistently poor postschool engagement outcomes in employment and postsecondary education and training. At least once every 6 years, states are required to submit a State Performance Plan in which they report performance on the progress of students with disabilities (20 U.S.C. 1416(b)(1)). Indicator 14 requires states...

Purveyors of false treatments frequently claim their treatments are effective, despite a lack of evidence. In some cases, these treatments can lead to dire results. This column examines the use of one such false treatment, facilitated communication, that has reemerged despite a substantial body of evidence discrediting it. A description of the tech...

Although there have been numerous instruments for assessing teacher efficacy in teaching general education students, there is a need to develop and validate an instrument that specifically assesses teachers’ efficacy in teaching students with disabilities. This study constructed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the Student Teachers’ Eff...

Bullying is a common occurrence in U.S.’s schools and is currently at the forefront of national attention. Unfortunately, students with disabilities are frequently the targets of peer-on-peer bullying. The purpose of this article is to examine the legal ramifications when students with disabilities are bullied in school settings. We address court c...

Special education is the most highly litigated area within the field of education. Therefore, the purpose of the current article is to highlight cases (court decisions, Office of Civil Rights rulings, and State Educational Agency hearings) involving students with disabilities in 2015. Highlights from the case law point to the need for school distri...

Discriminatory discipline has been widely documented for decades, yet little progress has been made to narrow the gap. Due to the long-standing history of discriminatory discipline, current nationwide data, and recent federal initiatives, there is a need for a comprehensive examination of this critical issue. Therefore, we discuss populations effec...

Using large sample archival data from the state of South Carolina’s juvenile justice agency and other state agencies, we examined the background, early experiential and delinquency-related variables predicting young adult (ages 17–30 years) offending among juvenile offenders. We also examined characteristics of juvenile offenders who committed only...

Federal legislation, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504, and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, mandates that individuals with disabilities be integrated in all aspects of life from education to employment to independent living. A recent development involves a settlement reached between the United States and the...

Parental participation is a crucial component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. When developing students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), school-based teams must place a high priority on involving students’ parents in a collaborative effort to develop their children’s educational programs and determine their placements....

This article examines a case out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit: Ridley School District v. M.R and J.R. ex rel. E.R. (2012). The case is the first circuit court case in which the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act requirement that special education services be based on peer-reviewed research (PRR) was at iss...

Attachment disorders are a relatively rare condition affecting children. This is particularly true for those who are adopted or living in foster care, and are thought to be attributed to an interruption in the bonding between a child and his or her caregiver. Attachment disorders are divided into two distinct categories: a predominately withdrawn t...

Structural behavioral assessment (SBA) involves a series of heuristic approaches similar to those used with functional behavioral assessment (FBA). It involves assessing contextual variables that precede the occurrence of a behavior. These variables have also been termed antecedents, setting events, or establishing operations. Once these variables...

Using large-sample, archival data from the state of South Carolina's juvenile justice agency, we examine the question of race differences in predictors of repeat offending for a sample of approximately 100,000 youth who had been referred for criminal offenses. Independent variables relating to background, adverse parenting, mental health, school-re...

Individualized education programs are considered the cornerstone of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act and serve as the means to determine whether qualified students with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education. This article aims to examine a recent circuit court ruling regarding the applicability of retrospective test...

Mental health in children and adults has always been a controversial topic, however, recent mass shootings in schools have heightened the concern of many and raise questions for how to interact with the mentally ill. Schools, have the capacity to be one of the key stakeholders in delivering services to students with mental health concerns, therefor...

Public concern over the general health of children in the United States has risen during recent years due to dramatic decreases in physical activity levels and increases in obesity and other health-related issues. This article examines the participation of students with disabilities in extracurricular activities, particularly athletic activities, i...

Poor employment outcomes for persons with intellectual disability (ID) persist despite legislative mandates designed to enhance access to gainful employment. Recent data suggest that only 37% of young adults with ID obtain paid employment outside of the home. Among those who do obtain employment, career options are limited and nearly half are paid...

Interventions based on the results of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) have been the topic of extensive research and, in certain cases, mandated for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). A main purpose of interventions based on the results of an FBA is to make problem behavior both inconseque...

Horrific events such as the fatal shooting of three high school students in Chardon, Ohio, in the winter of 2012 places tremendous pressure on state and local agencies to ensure that schools provide a safe and conducive learning environment for all students. To help curb school violence, schools have adopted zero-tolerance policies, which often cal...

It is currently estimated that up to 6 million children take psychotropic medications for the treatment of mental health problems. The highest prevalence rates (50–76 %) are typically found among students with special needs, especially among those with ADHD and emotional disturbance. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Sectio...

This study examined influences on delinquency and recidivism using structural equation modeling. The sample comprised 199, 204 individuals: 99, 602 youth whose cases had been processed by the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and a matched control group of 99, 602 youth without juvenile records. Structural equation modeling for the outc...