George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Special Education

Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for supporting students with special needs.

  • How to Improve Students With Disabilities’ Sense of Belonging

    By focusing on play, schools are finding ways to bring students with and without disabilities together, to the benefit of both groups.
    Emelina Minero

  • Helping Children With Special Needs Transition to Kindergarten

    Teacher-tested tips for preparing children in early childhood special education for kindergarten.
    Maddi Bodine

  • How to Improve Distance Learning for Students With IEPs

    Strategies for parental involvement and synchronous and asynchronous activities can help students with individualized education programs.
    Kathryn Welby

  • The Sensory Room: Helping Students With Autism Focus and Learn

    Imagine a safe space where students with autism can go to calm their bodies and then get back to the business of learning.

  • New Strategies in Special Education as Kids Learn From Home

    In special education, teachers say that schedules, sensory supports, and close collaboration with families can help smooth the transition to remote learning.
    Nora Fleming

  • Apps for Students With Special Needs—As School Buildings Shutter

    The coronavirus creates a unique challenge for students with special needs—educators share recommendations for apps to support learning at home.
    Jayne Clare

  • Supporting Students With Dysgraphia

    While there's not a lot of research on dysgraphia yet, there are a few signs you should look out for, and some evidence-based tactics to help kids with the writing condition.

  • Co-Teaching in Distance Learning

    A middle school English and special education teacher share how they meet the needs of all of their students—and the new practices they’ll bring back to the classroom.
    Sarah Kesty, Joshua Dye

  • 8 Tips for Conducting Virtual IEP Meetings

    Educators, parents, and students usually gather in person at school for individualized education program meetings, but digital tools can be used for this work.
    Kathryn Nieves

  • In California, Some Schools Reopen for Vulnerable Students

    In one county in California, alternative education and special education students are starting to return to school with new heightened health protocols.
    Nora Fleming

  • DIY Ways to Meet a Child's Sensory Needs at Home

    Occupational therapists and trauma-informed teachers weigh in on how to create sensory tools and spaces with what you have at home.
    Emelina Minero, Nora Fleming

  • Keeping Students With Learning Disabilities Motivated at Home

    Using movement breaks and improving skills like the ability to focus can help high school students with learning disabilities stay on track in this unsettled time.
    Daniel Vollrath

  • 6 Ways to Transition IEP Goals to Remote Learning

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, meeting IEP goals can be a challenge. We offer ways to help.
    Kathryn Fishman-Weaver

  • 17 Ways to Help Students With ADHD Concentrate

    Teacher-tested ideas to help students quietly fidget.
    Youki Terada

  • The Missing Autistic Girls

    In the past two decades, autism diagnoses have soared—but new research shows that girls have frequently been overlooked, leaving them without crucial support.
    Carly Berwick