Research strongly supports including students with extensive support needs in general education settings and providing them access to the general curriculum. Yet, there is limited research indicating how to provide them authentic access to this curriculum. This article explores several instructional approaches to provide access including (a) use…

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the author was falsely labeled as a student with mental retardation, a label that controlled her educational experience for 8 years. In the early 1980s, she completed traditional university licensure programs to become both a general and a special education teacher. In this article, the author provides the perspective…

Special education as practiced today remains firmly anchored in the original logic of the Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (PL 94-142). Subsequent reauthorizations of the statute have included language designed to increase access to the general curriculum by special needs students but have not addressed the underlying…

School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) is a systematic and effective approach for broadly improving student behavior across school environments. SWPBS includes data-based strategies for supporting all students along a continuum of need and intensity based on a three-tiered model of prevention. Students with the most significant behavioral…

Many schools have increased their use of paraprofessionals as a primary mechanism to include more students with various disabilities in general education classes. Although intended to be supportive, service delivery that relies extensively on paraprofessionals has resulted in a host of challenges for public schools and questionable services for…

This article introduces a special issue on accessing the general curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The authors intent with the series was to highlight four Directed Research (CFDA 84.324D) projects funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in 2002. The directed research priority targeted the need to extend…

Promoting access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities has emerged as a central theme of recent legislative and policy initiatives. Ensuring that students with severe disabilities benefit fully from the myriad learning and social opportunities available through the general curriculum remains an important challenge, particularly…

Research indicates that peer interaction can have a substantial impact on the lives of adolescents with disabilities. However, social interaction among adolescents with intellectual disabilities and their general education peers typically occurs infrequently in secondary schools. This paper provides a critical analysis of twenty-six empirical…