We're In This Together: Public-Private Partnerships in Special and At-Risk-Education is a timely book that explores the use by public schools of private education companies to meet the needs of some of the nation's most challenged and challenging students. The book examines variations of use by states as well as the cultural attitudes toward the private sector to address these core functions of public schooling. The book offers grounded and thought provoking perspectives on: the legal framework of PL94-142 and its successor IDEA; the disconnect between the needs of young children with autism and public school special education services; and the significant size of the at-risk population and the shortcomings of efforts to serve those students. Written as qualitative research in the form of ethnographic participant observation, key sources in the literature are cited and four dozen knowledgeable people in positions of significant authority are interviewed on the interface of public education and the private sector in special and at-risk education. A foreword is provided by Barbara Byrd Bennett, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools.

Special education in the United State is based on the concept of access-public schools are open to all children. But access is no longer a sufficient foundation. Approaches and accommodations that lead to academic success are increasingly demanded for those with learning disabilities. Functional, independent-living, and employable skills are requisite, but rare, for those with serious handicapping conditions. Since the last reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, four events have transpired that will have a dramatic impact on the next iteration of the federal law: the increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism, the rise of applied behavior analysis, the birth of social media, and the reality of unbundling. In How Autism Is Reshaping Special Education: The Unbundling of IDEA, Claypool and McLaughlin explore the effect of these events on a special education process burdened by regulation, where advances in the behavioral sciences and neurosciences blur the lines between education and medicine, and where social media fosters aggressive advocacy for specific disabilities. 2018 International Book Awards: Finalist Education/Academic 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist Education/Academic (Non-Fiction) 2017 Best Book Awards: Finalist Education/Academic

Special education in the United State is based on the concept of access-public schools are open to all children. But access is no longer a sufficient foundation. Approaches and accommodations that lead to academic success are increasingly demanded for those with learning disabilities. Functional, independent-living, and employable skills are requisite, but rare, for those with serious handicapping conditions. Since the last reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, four events have transpired that will have a dramatic impact on the next iteration of the federal law: the increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism, the rise of applied behavior analysis, the birth of social media, and the reality of unbundling. In How Autism Is Reshaping Special Education: The Unbundling of IDEA, Claypool and McLaughlin explore the effect of these events on a special education process burdened by regulation, where advances in the behavioral sciences and neurosciences blur the lines between education and medicine, and where social media fosters aggressive advocacy for specific disabilities. 2018 International Book Awards: Finalist Education/Academic 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist Education/Academic (Non-Fiction) 2017 Best Book Awards: Finalist Education/Academic