This paper is designed to address several critical issues that pertain to the development of longitudinal curricular content for use with severely handicapped students. More specifically, to emphasize: (a) the importance of the principle of partial participation; (b) the need to create a wide variety of adaptations that might allow severely handicapped students at least to participate in many environments and activities from which they have been excluded; and (c) a rationale for using current and subsequent environment orientations and ecological inventory strategies in curriculum development processes. In addition, the authors present a cursory example of how ecological inventory strategies and current and subsequent environment orientations might be combined to generate chrononogical age appropriate curricular content.
Collaboration is considered an essential characteristic for inclusive education to be effective and reflective of research-based best practices. General and special education teachers and related service personnel must work together and share goals, strategies, and physical space for students with and without disabilities to learn in inclusive settings. Teachers and parents must build trusting and collaborative partnerships in the delivery of inclusive education. Finally, students with and without disabilities must work together and support one another in building effective schools. We offer research-based strategies for and examples of effective collaborative relationships and outcomes from those relationships.
If chronological-age-appropriate and functional curricular content is to be developed, the basic components of an individualized education program (IEP) as mandated by P.L. 94-142 must be supplemented, expanded, and instructionally defined in relation to the unique educational needs of each severely handicapped student. A six-phase process for developing IEPs for such students is presented. It is intended that this six-phase process be considered in attempts to generate individualized interpretations of many of the concepts in P.L. 94-142. Furthermore, it is intended that progression through the phases will result in closer approximations of chronological-age-appropriate IEPs than if only components stipulated by P.L. 94-142 are considered. P.L. 94-142 AND THE INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM (IEP) P.L. 94-142 mandates that teachers providing special educational services to handicapped students design, record, implement, and evaluate IEPs for each of
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