Shaping What Comes Next: Meet the Editors of Exceptional Children

The editorial team brings expertise across special education, bilingual education, literacy, educational equity, and the policies and practices that shape students’ experiences. 

	Kathleen King Thorius Professor of Special Education and Director of Learning Futures Collaboratives, Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, Arizona State University	Thorius is a critical special education scholar who develops and facilitates cultural-historical approaches to teacher learning, working largely with white and nondisabled educators to advance inclusive education as an intersectional education justice movement.
	Endia J. Lindo, Ph.D. Professor of Special Education, Texas Christian University	As a scholar, teacher educator, and organizational leader, Lindo prepares educators to serve diverse learners. Her work advances equity in special education by strengthening the implementation and sustainability of evidence-based reading interventions in schools and communities while examining how disability, race, language, culture, and poverty intersect to shape reading outcomes.
	Patricia Martínez-Álvarez Professor of Bilingual/Bicultural Education, Teachers College, Columbia University	Martínez-Álvarez’s work aims to advance bilingual education toward more inclusive, imaginative, and hybrid possibilities for minoritized learners.
	Amanda L. Sullivan Professor, University of Calgary	Sullivan’s research focuses on identifying educational and health disparities among children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, understanding equity in and the effectiveness of the educational and health services they receive, and examining how ethics and law shape practices and students’ experiences.

What Are Researchers Talking About? 

Research in Exceptional Children reflects a field grappling with increasingly complex questions about equity, inclusion, and the experiences of learners with disabilities. 

The editors report growing attention to how students are identified for special education, how supports are allocated, and how schools can expand access to inclusive and ambitious educational opportunities. Researchers are also examining how students, families, educators, and communities can play meaningful roles in decisions that affect them. 

Several topics are receiving particular attention: 

• Language, culture, and disability: Research on emergent multilingual learners with disabilities, bilingual special education, and the ways language and school context influence identification and support. 
• Family partnership and student voice: Studies examining family collaboration, the co-design of individualized education programs (IEPs), and opportunities for students to help shape their educational experiences. 
• Educator workforce and practice: Research on educator and paraeducator diversity and retention, as well as the implementation and sustained use of evidence-based interventions. 
• Autism and complex support needs: Scholarship exploring autism across school, family, and transition contexts, along with extensive support needs and complex communication needs. 
• Belonging and well-being: Work investigating students’ social-emotional experiences and the conditions that support meaningful participation in school. 

The editors also point to methodological developments that are broadening how researchers investigate special education. Mixed-methods research, critical policy analysis, registered reports and other open-science approaches, intervention and single-subject research, secondary data analyses, and qualitative and participatory designs are contributing to a more expansive understanding of students’ experiences. 

Together, these trends reflect a field asking not only whether educational approaches are effective, but also how context, identity, policy, and access shape their effects. 

The Work Behind Exceptional Children 

Publishing research that advances the field requires a careful editorial process. From initial submission through publication, each manuscript must be evaluated for its scholarly contribution, methodological quality, and relevance to the journal’s mission. 

The process moves through several stages: 

1. Submission: Authors submit their manuscripts for consideration. 
2. Editorial review: The editorial team evaluates each submission for suitability for the journal and its potential contribution to the field. 
3. Peer review: Experts evaluate manuscripts that proceed and provide feedback on the research and its implications. 
4. Revision: Authors may be invited to address reviewer and editor feedback and strengthen their manuscripts. 
5. Publication: Accepted manuscripts move toward publication, bringing new evidence and perspectives to researchers, educators, policymakers, and others working in special education. 

This process supports the journal’s commitment to rigorous scholarship while helping ensure published research contributes meaningfully to ongoing conversations in the field.