Author Archives

Mitchell Yell

Mitchell L. Yell, Ph.D., is the Fred and Francis Lester Palmetto Chair in Teacher Education and a Professor in Special Education at the University of South Carolina. He earned his Ph.D. in special education from the University of Minnesota. His professional interests include special education law, IEP development, progress monitoring, and parent involvement in special education. Dr. Yell has published 124 journal articles, 6 textbooks, 32 book chapters, and has conducted numerous workshops on various aspects of special education law, classroom management, and progress monitoring. His textbook, Special Education and the Law, is in its 5th edition. He also had been awarded almost $16 million in grants. Dr. Yell also serves as a State-level due process review officer in South Carolina. Prior to working in higher education, Dr. Yell was a special education teacher in Minnesota for 14 years.

Disciplining Students with Disabilities

School district officials respond to challenging and disruptive behavior in a variety of ways and determining the appropriate response to students’ problem behavior is a difficult and complex issue. This becomes especially true when a student has a disability. Different rules and regulations apply to disciplining students with disabilities under […]

Online Special Education Law Resources

Researching Special Education Law Online Mitchell L. Yell, Ph.D. With the availability of online resources, today’s administrators and teachers can become more legally literate about special education laws, policies, and procedures.  Moreover, they should be better able to identify legal issues and applicable laws or legal standards and apply relevant […]

OSEP and OCR Policy Guidance on Disciplining Students

The essential obligation of special educators is to collaboratively develop an individualized program of special education and related services for eligible students with disabilities that confers a free appropriate public education (FAPE). When a student with disabilities exhibits serious problem behavior, providing a FAPE often means including behavioral programming in […]

Free Virtual Webinar from the Progress Center

The OSEP-funded Progress Center (promotingprogress.org) is hosting a free virtual program titled “Prepping for PROGRESS! Adding New Tools to Your Backpack (Toolbox) for the Start of School.” The purpose of the event is to assist teachers who are looking for resources and strategies to help prepare educators to promote progress […]

Kenny v. Wilson (2021): The Beginning of the End for Laws Criminalizing Student Misbehavior?

As of 2019, 31 states had laws or local ordinances that criminalized student misbehavior that occurred in or around schools. These laws often criminalize behaviors committed by students that may be socially inappropriate but fall short of criminal behavior. Moreover, the criminalized behaviors are often indistinguishable from behaviors that receive […]