Ongoing: Offered 1-2 times per year.

Disability Studies & Universal Design Feb 2024 [Online]
Graduate Continuing Education Credit: 1 Semester Unit (Equivalent to 30 PDUs)
Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling,
Portland OR

Every educator will encounter students who meet the criteria for disability and will grapple with how to successfully foster learning, equity and inclusion in diverse classrooms and schools. This online course introduces Dis/ability Studies in Education—a liberation movement discipline, distinct from Special Education, which offers unique insight into these endeavors and proposes Universal Design as a guiding principle.

Disability Studies proposes that disability is contextualized in particular social, cultural and political environments, according to the acceptable limits of human variability in those environments. This contrasts with the “medical model,” which positions disability as a deficit inherent in an individual, to be rehabilitated, remediated or cured. With this in mind our inquiry will focus on how we may create embracive learning environments where all students feel valued and empowered, and how we may work to dismantle systemic barriers to equity and inclusion in education.

Through assigned readings and communal online discussion among professional peers, we will investigate philosophical, pedagogical, and pragmatic approaches to dis/ability, equity, and inclusion in education. Teachers, counselors, administrators, psychologists, specialists, and academics should all emerge from this course with the historical context, intellectual framework, and practical skills to deepen their professional practice and help promote social justice—both within the sphere of education and in the wider world.

Previous Courses:

Special Needs Learners: Issues, Policies, and Practices  [Online]
Education X328.8 | 3 Units
UCLA Extension

Course addresses classifications, legislative contributions, assessment, instructional processes, family issues, and current trends regarding special needs learners. Participants learn to identify individual students’ educational and psychosocial needs as well as how to modify the learning environment to meet those needs.

Fulfills the Special Needs/Mainstreaming (Standard 14) requirement for the California SB 2042 Preliminary Teaching Credential. Please obtain the approval of your adviser before enrolling to ensure that this course satisfies your teaching license requirements.

Advanced Provisions and Strategies for Special Needs Learner Instruction [Online]
Education X437.79 | 4.5 Units
UCLA Extension

Review the full range of special populations, including special education, students with disabilities, advanced learners, and students with a combination of special instructional needs. Topics include legal issues, professional responsibilities, curriculum design, and instructional practices. Explore the importance of establishing working partnerships with families, resource specialists, therapists, psychologists, and other school/community personnel who can support the student’s academic achievement. Participants also examine their own curriculum and instructional models with respect to special population students and fostering a strengths-based community of learners.

Fulfills a core requirement for the CA Multiple/Single Subject Clear Teaching Credential for students enrolled in the UCLA University Induction Credential Program.  May be used at other institutions with prior approval from the candidate’s credential advisor.

Teaching Individuals with Special Needs in the Regular Classroom
3.0 Units
University of San Diego

This online course will provide the general education teacher with a knowledge of resources, techniques, strategies and applications of mainstreaming, integration or inclusive education for the special needs student and the mandates governing that education. Course topics include: presentations in special education terminology and law; disability overviews; assessment; section 504; participating in the IEP team meeting; curriculum adaptations/modifications; behavior management; and communication and myths.

Fulfills the mainstreaming special education requirement for the Ryan Professional Clear Credential in California.