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To examine the use of student workers in libraries, and to outline how a student worker training program can be designed and implemented. A review of published works (1978–2014), which aims to provide information on training and using student workers for more advanced tasks. A description of the history of student workers in the reference department of the Earl K. Long Library, along with a detailed account of the training used to transform the Student Reference Assistant positions. Finally, a survey sent electronically to all Louisiana academic libraries to gather information on how other libraries use student workers. Many libraries rely on student workers for staff-level tasks. Libraries can use student workers to fill in staffing gaps, to a certain extent, as long as a proper training program is implemented. Research was limited to Louisiana academic libraries, so it is not a comprehensive view of student workers throughout the country. While there were a good number of respondents, the survey was not answered by representatives of each Louisiana academic library. A broader study of how student workers are used in libraries should be conducted in the future. Many libraries still rely on staff to do everything. This chapter will provide libraries with options for using student workers in more advanced ways. It also offers key guidelines to follow when forming a training program. Most research in this area focuses on training or assessing student workers and not on finding ways to use them to fill in staffing gaps.

Since the passage of Public Law 94-142, federal law has prioritized the education of students with disabilities with their non-disabled peers in the context of the general education classroom. This chapter examines the progress, and often lack thereof, with regard to educating students with extensive and pervasive support needs in inclusive settings. We examine current trends in placement, factors that contribute to those placement practices, and what IDEA says about the education of students with extensive and pervasive support needs. We examine what the research suggests happens in substantially segregated settings and then, in contrast, examine impacts and outcomes for students with extensive and pervasive support needs who are educated in inclusive settings. We also examine trends resulting from changing paradigms of disability that provide new opportunities for re-invigorating efforts to educate students with extensive and pervasive support needs in inclusive classrooms.