Policy research often involves discrete topics, such as education, health, social services, and families. As valuable as that research is, it often fails to take into account that there are powerful connections among the topics, and that there is a framework that connects research on each topic. We have given that framework a name. We call it "core concepts" research.
Core concepts are those 18 indispensable (core) ideas (concepts) that underlie all disability policy. We have identified these core concepts by analyzing the federal laws and decisions of the United States Supreme Court that bear most directly on the lives of families and individuals affected by disability, and by conducting focus groups and individual interviews with the nation's leading policy experts.