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As concerns over COVID-19 continue to shutter schools and limit access to community resources, teachers across the country are facing questions they never thought they’d have to ask. How can I shift to online learning when not every student has a computer, and some have complex support needs? What...

*We originally published this post near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While some things have changed since then, the activities in this post are still great skill-builders for young children!  As schools close due to COVID-19 concerns and new guidelines on social distancing take effect,...

For young people with disabilities, making the all-important transition to adulthood can be challenging—but when their support teams know the key components of effective transition planning, the process will be easier and more empowering for everyone involved. That’s what today’s blog post is all...

Executive function skills—including task initiation, attention span, flexibility, rule-following, and working memory—are important building blocks of your students’ academic and social success. Though these skills can be taught and learned just like academic subjects, most teachers don’t have a...

Into almost every IEP meeting, at least a little conflict must come. With so much at stake for the student—and with so many different people trying to reach consensus—it’s easy to see why. Today’s post offers some helpful guidance on how to work through conflict in these meetings and reconcile the...

All students can learn to read and write. That’s the belief behind the new book Comprehensive Literacy for All, written by Karen Erickson & David Koppenhaver. Today we’ll be looking at a few key findings from this innovative, forward-thinking book, which fully explores how to provide...

For children with and without disabilities, strong social-emotional skills are the foundation of long-term success in school, at work, and in the community. With so much at stake, it’s critical to start addressing this key area of development in the early years, even before a child starts school....

To ensure the best outcomes for the young children you work with, it’s important to engage the real experts on each child: their families. When you make parents active partners in educational decision-making, strengthen their parenting confidence, and encourage their responsiveness to the child’s...

Hard to believe, but it’s almost time to say goodbye to 2019. As you close the book on another year—and look forward to the second half of the school year—are you making any teaching-related resolutions? New Year’s resolutions don’t work for everyone; many people prefer a less formal,...

Happy Inclusive Schools Week, teachers, and thanks for everything you do to all year long to make every learner feel safe, respected, and welcomed. Our hats are off to you, this week and EVERY week. On this blog, it’s a tradition to celebrate Inclusive Schools Week with some practical inclusion...

Today we’ve got a great free resource for you: a set of six practical inclusion tip sheets, adapted from the work of Brookes author and inclusion rock star Paula Kluth. Check them out below for some how-to tips on including and teaching all students. And at the end of this post, you can download...

December is just days away—and though you’ve probably been hearing “Jingle Bells” since the day after Halloween, now’s the time when the holidays really kick into high gear. It’s a hectic month for many families, but the holiday season is also packed with lots of chances to connect with kids and...

In authentically inclusive schools, collaboration among all team members is a vital success factor. In fact, collaborative teaming is “so central to inclusive schooling that it can be viewed as the glue that holds the school together” (King-Sears, Janney, & Snell).   No one disputes that...

Universal design for learning (UDL) is one of the most-discussed topics among our readers and social media followers. We keep our ear to the ground when it comes to UDL—and in today’s blog post, we’re sharing a few key resources on how to create a universally designed learning environment. From...

How do you promote friendships and peer engagement in your inclusive early childhood classroom? Encouraging communication and cooperation is important for all your young learners, but it may be more of a challenge to get autistic children to play and participate in activities with their classmates....

How’s your school year going so far? If you’re a new teacher, you might be feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of the classroom—maybe you’re struggling with how much there is to juggle, or maybe lesson planning is tougher than you hoped it would be. (Leave a comment below with your biggest...

This blog is brought to you by Brookes Publishing, a trusted publisher of books and other resources on education, disability, and early childhood. Brookes has partnered up with edWeb to create an awesome—and yes, FREE!—professional learning community called Teaching All Students: Practical...

Here in the United States, at least one in four children experiences trauma severe enough to negatively affect their school success.* That’s why Brookes, the publishing company that brings you the Inclusion Lab, has been partnering with some of today’s most passionate and knowledgeable experts on...

Each October, we provide you with some practical tips and strategies for National Bullying Prevention Month—a nationwide campaign founded more than a decade ago by PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center. This year, we’re focusing on an element of bullying that isn’t often discussed: the issue...

Fall is finally here! It’s a busy season for many families, but the last few months before winter sets in are packed with lots of chances to connect with kids and have fun together. Whether parents plan special family outings or fill their autumn days with close-to-home activities, it’s often the...

Person-centered planning, as defined by the PACER Center, is “an ongoing problem-solving process used to help people with disabilities plan for their future.” It’s a way to get to know students—their strengths, their needs, their goals, their dreams—and support them in creating a...

Interventions are important when students engage in challenging behaviors—but build a strong foundation of preventative strategies, and you’ll probably find that fewer students need behavior interventions. Today’s blog post is all about preventative behavior support in K-12 inclusive classrooms....

If you’re an early childhood educator, you know that the preschool and kindergarten years are an exciting time for language development. Kids are absorbing new words, hearing and telling stories, taking steps toward reading and writing, and learning to communicate with peers—and you play a key part...

Today’s blog post shines a light on five essential thinking skills that the most effective teachers have. A quick glance at the list will tell you these are all skills that good teachers try to cultivate in their students—but they’re equally important for educators to nurture in themselves. Read...