Mitchell Yell is a professor in special education at the College of Education, University of South Carolina (USC) in Columbia, South Carolina. Prior to coming to the University of South Carolina, Dr. Yell was a special education teacher in Minnesota for 16 years. During this time he taught in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms for students with mild mental retardation, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders and autism. Having received his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota in 1992, Dr. Yell‘s professional interests include special education law, evidence-based interventions for children and youth with disabilities, school-wide positive behavioral support and progress monitoring.

For the past 16 years, Dr. Yell has conducted extensive research on legal issues in special education. His primary goal has been to extrapolate principles from legislation and litigation; communicate them to parents, teachers and administrators in a clear, nonlegal manner; and to assist school districts in the formation of legally sound, research-based, policies. He has published over 60 journal articles, two textbooks The Law and Special Education, 2nd edition, and No Child Left Behind published by Merrill/Prentice Hall) 12 book chapters, and has conducted numerous workshops on many aspects of special education law.

Since coming to USC, Dr. Yell has directed the teacher-training program in emotional and behavioral disorders at USC. He is also the lead author of the forthcoming textbook Educating Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in General and Special Education Classrooms, also published by Merrill/Prentice Hall. Finally, he has recently started working on The Special Education Resource Book: Developing and Implementing Legally Sound and Educationally Appropriate Special Education Programs, to be published by Sopris West. He has conducted numerous local, state, national, and international workshops.

This workshop is co-sponsored by SC Autism Society and the SC Department of Education.