Before 1975, only one in five children with disabilities attended public school. Federal legislation changed that. With more than 6 million children receiving special education services, educators, parents, and providers face many challenges on the road to improving outcomes—and improving lives—for students with disabilities.
Our Work
AIR conducts federal, state, and local projects designed to improve outcomes for students with disabilities and their families. We offer training and technical assistance support for implementing evidence-based practices in each of the 50 states and ten U.S. territories, as well as in hundreds of local school districts.
Our areas of expertise include
- special education programming (PROGRESS Center)
- intensive intervention (National Center on Intensive Intervention);
- response to intervention and multi-tiered systems of support;
- supporting large-scale improvements for students with disabilities (National Center for Systemic Improvement);
- instructional and assistive technology (Center on Technology and Disability and PowerUp/WHAT WORKS);
- teacher preparation (Center for Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform); and
- federal special education fiscal requirements (Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting).
We also develop projects that analyze and synthesize information related to policy initiatives in special education and early intervention and conduct cutting-edge research on emerging, high-priority topics related to special education.
