Assessing individual support needs to enhance personal outcomes

Education and human service organizations providing services to people with intellectual and closely related developmental disabilities are increasingly being impacted by the supports paradigm, the quality of life concept, and the evaluation of personal outcomes. In this article the authors discuss the relationship among these three areas, including examples that illustrate how assessed support needs data can be aligned with quality-of-life-related core domains so as to establish individualized support systems that enhance personal outcomes. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for educators and habilitation professionals of integrating the supports paradigm, the quality of life concept, and the evaluation of personal outcomes

DNS zones revisited

Recent research [Pap04b] suggests DNS reliability and performance is not up to the levels it should be due to misconfigurations. This paper checks the configuration of nameserver zones against additional requirements, recommendations and best-practices. It shows that almost one in four domains fails to pass one or more of these checks. During the checks an interesting correlation is established: a higher number of nameservers for a single zone usually decreases reliability and performance instead of increasing both

Community Instruction and Vocational Learning

This meta-synthesis on community-based instruction and vocational learning in special education explores the training and skills individuals with disabilities require need to survive and thrive in employment and post-school activities designed to improve self-reliance, personal responsibility, and increase exposure to the community and all of the activities and opportunities that exist there. Substantial barriers must be addressed for all individuals with disabilities, but particularly for those individuals with moderate to more severe disabilities. Through proper trainings, and the utilization of the necessary tools and equipment, individuals with disabilities will continue to increasingly transition into meaningful employment and community-based programs intended to build self-sufficiency

Developing collaborative partnerships with culturally and linguistically diverse families during the IEP process

Family participation in the special education process has been federally mandated for 40 years, and educators recognize that effective collaboration with their students’ families leads to improved academic and social outcomes for students. However, while some family-school relationships are positive and collaborative, many are not, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families. This article provides practice guidelines based in research for teachers who seek to improve their practices when working with CLD families who have children served by special education