Collaboration between special educators and transition coordinators is important to lower recidivism rates among juvenile offenders with disabilities. This column provides best practice transition guidelines and urges special education teachers, special education coordinators, and transition coordinators in juvenile correctional facilities to communicate among themselves and other professionals to collaborate during the transition period from the community to confinement and when juveniles with disabilities reenter the community.

This article presents qualitative results of the instructional usefulness of a Web-based multimedia problem-based learning module designed to simulate the special education referral process. The multicultural special education (MUSE) module uses three interactive phases to highlight the complexity of determining the nature of academic difficulties when a student has English language limitations. Interviews with instructors and pre-service teachers indicated that the multimedia components of the module created a realistic portrayal of the special education referral process. Furthermore, the group work within the module provided a unique opportunity for pre-service teachers to begin to collaborate with a team to make educational decisions for students they will likely encounter in their future professions.

National rates of juvenile incarceration show that about 33% of the population in correctional confinement has disabilities such as behavioral disorders or specific learning disabilities. All students identified under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) as having a disability are entitled to special education and transition services when they are incarcerated if they need specialized services. Despite the requirements for education and transition, research shows that rates of recidivism increase from about 55% for the general population of incarcerated youth to approximately 85% for youth with disabilities. This article addresses three related questions: (a) What educational and transitional services does IDEIA require schools to offer students in juvenile correctional facilities in the United States? (b) How are parents involved with the education and rehabilitation of their children with disabilities in correctional confinement? (c) What are the challenges associated with parental involvement and transition to and from incarceration for students with disabilities?

Problem-based learning (PBL), especially in conjunction with collaborative learning teams, continues to gain momentum as a popular instructional approach in higher education. In this article, we address three common assumptions about how PBL groups function and report the outcomes of a study in which we examined group dynamics during a computer-assisted PBL module designed to train preservice teachers on the procedures for disciplining students with disabilities. We found that students often do not engage in the constructive dissonance assumed to contribute to strong consensus decisions: groups often defer to an individual or minority opinion with little persuasion or critical thinking. We recommend teaching subject content together with group skills such that future professionals can ensure that all voices are heard, quick answers are scrutinized, and alternative solutions are appropriately vetted by educational teams.

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