Issues and Trends in Special Education: Implications for School Psychologists.

School psychologists' expertise and services have been important in student identification and program eligibility for students with disabilities. During the early 1990's, several factors, conditions, and trends suggest that special education will soon undergo seminal changes and psychologists must stand ready for this transformation. This paper identifies and analyzes selected conditions, controversies, and trends--in the field of special education and U.S. society as a whole--which will profoundly influence the future of special education in the nation's schools. Student enrollment in these programs has increased dramatically and with this expansion come issues of costs, defining at-risk students, the role of the Regular Education Initiative, and other important issues. Discussed with these conditions are the attendant changes in the roles and responsibilities of school psychologists along with recommendations on how they can become most effectively involved in special education's transitional period. Psychologists can help educators sort out many of the critical issues involving the complex relationships between students identified as having traditional disabilities and those students who do not qualify for special education services but who still are considered to be at risk. (Contains 36 references.) (RJM)