Sufficiency of Teachers’ Access to Resources and Supports for Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Students with disabilities are served by both special and general educators, yet teachers often feel unprepared to meet the needs of these students in their classrooms. Using data from a nationally representative survey, we examined the sufficiency of teachers’ access to supports available for meeting the needs of students with high-incidence disabilities, their access to development opportunities, and the sources teachers used to access interventions. We explored differences in teachers’ experiences by grade band, service delivery model, and teacher preparation model. We found teachers of students with disabilities rated the sufficiency of access to supports between somewhat insufficient and somewhat sufficient, with the lowest ratings for planning/release time and training and information. Teachers reported greater rates of access to collaboration than professional development. Colleagues were sources for resources related to academic interventions and administrators were sources for nonacademic intervention resources. There were few significant differences in these results by teacher characteristics.