Assessment and Programming for Young Children with Low-Incidence Handicaps

The public schools have taken on increasing responsibility over the last decade for providing in-school educational services to chil- dren with low-incidence handicaps, children who, not very many years ago, would have been relegated to custodial care or limited to care only in the home. With the increasing responsibility for educating these children has come recognition that few of us have the requisite knowledge or skills to deliver high-quality services to these chil- dren. University programs are providing more staff, but the existing staff must also be trained. We have been involved for several years, with the special education branch of the Nebraska Department of Edu- cation in the provision of in-service training in the early identifi- cation and assessment of handicapping conditions, when we realized an even greater need for training regular classroom teachers, administra- tors, and psychologists in addition to early childhood special educa- tion personnel about the nature of low-incidence handicaps and how they might be dealt with in the public school setting. Knowing the enormity and the expense of such an undertaking, we tenuously ap- proached the State Department. They too were cognizant of this need and welcomed our ideas. Jan Thelen and her capable staff then took to coordinating the planning with us and the Nebraska Department of Education provided the fundings.