Recent research has demonstrated the importance of executive functioning – a set of cognitive abilities necessary for regulation and control of goal-directed behavior – to academic skills in typically developing children. Executive functioning may be of particular consequence for students with disabilities who may already be at risk for academic and learning problems. One domain of executive functioning, working memory, may be especially crucial for academic performance. This symposium will present research that takes knowledge of cognitive science to the realm of educating children with disabilities. The projects include both the exploration of executive functioning skills and the development of strategies aimed at improving executive functioning in children with disabilities. They bring together researchers with various backgrounds (e.g., cognitive psychology, educational psychology, special education, neuroscience) and cut across different types of psychological and cognitive disabilities with impairments in executive functioning skills.