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APPENDIX A - Part I
I. Involvement and Progress of Each Child With a Disability in the
General Curriculum
In enacting the IDEA Amendments of 1997, the Congress found that
research, demonstration, and practice over the past 20 years in
special education and related disciplines have demonstrated that an
effective educational system now and in the future must maintain
high academic standards and clear performance goals for children
with disabilities, consistent with the standards and expectations
for all students in the educational system, and provide for
appropriate and effective strategies and methods to ensure that
students who are children with disabilities have maximum
opportunities to achieve those standards and goals. [Section
651(a)(6)(A) of the Act.]
Accordingly, the evaluation and IEP provisions of Part B place
great emphasis on the involvement and progress of children with
disabilities in the general curriculum. (The term ``general
curriculum,'' as used in these regulations, including this Appendix,
refers to the curriculum that is used with nondisabled children.)
While the Act and regulations recognize that IEP teams must make
individualized decisions about the special education and related
services, and supplementary aids and services, provided to each
child with a disability, they are driven by IDEA's strong preference
that, to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities
be educated in regular classes with their nondisabled peers with
appropriate supplementary aids and services.
In many cases, children with disabilities will need appropriate
supports in order to successfully progress in the general
curriculum, participate in State and district-wide assessment
programs, achieve the measurable goals in their IEPs, and be
educated together with their nondisabled peers. Accordingly, the Act
requires the IEP team to determine, and the public agency to
provide, the accommodations, modifications, supports, and
supplementary aids and services, needed by each child with a
disability to successfully be involved in and progress in the
general curriculum achieve the goals of the IEP, and successfully
demonstrate his or her competencies in State and district-wide
assessments.
1. What are the major Part B IEP requirements that govern the
involvement and progress of children with disabilities in the
general curriculum?
Present Levels of Educational Performance
Section 300.347(a)(1) requires that the IEP for each child with
a disability include ``* * * a statement of the child's present
levels of educational performance, including--(i) how the child's
disability affects the child's involvement and progress in the
general curriculum; or (ii) for preschool children, as appropriate,
how the child's disability affects the child's participation in
appropriate activities * * *'' (``Appropriate activities'' in this
context refers to age-relevant developmental abilities or milestones
that typically developing children of the same age would be
performing or would have achieved.)
The IEP team's determination of how each child's disability
affects the child's involvement and progress in the general
curriculum is a primary consideration in the development of the
child's IEP. In assessing children with disabilities, school
districts may use a variety of assessment techniques to determine
the extent to which these children can be involved and progress in
the general curriculum, such as criterion-referenced tests, standard
achievement tests, diagnostic tests, other tests, or any combination
of the above.
The purpose of using these assessments is to determine the
child's present levels of educational performance and areas of need
arising from the child's disability so that approaches for ensuring
the child's involvement and progress in the general curriculum and
any needed adaptations or modifications to that curriculum can be
identified.
Measurable Annual Goals, including Benchmarks or Short-term objectives
Measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or short-term
objectives, are critical to the strategic planning process used to
develop and implement the IEP for each child with a disability. Once
the IEP team has developed measurable annual goals for a child, the
team (1) can develop strategies that will be most effective in
realizing those goals and (2) must develop either measurable,
intermediate steps (short-term objectives) or major milestones
(benchmarks) that will enable parents, students, and educators to
monitor progress during the year, and, if appropriate, to revise the
IEP consistent with the student's instructional needs.
The strong emphasis in Part B on linking the educational program
of children with disabilities to the general curriculum is reflected
in Sec. 300.347(a)(2), which requires that the IEP include:
a statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or
short-term objectives, related to--(i) meeting the child's needs
that result from the child's disability to enable the child to be
involved in and progress in the general curriculum; and (ii) meeting
each of the child's other educational needs that result from the
child's disability.
As noted above, each annual goal must include either short-term
objectives or benchmarks. The purpose of both is to enable a child's
teacher(s), parents, and others involved in developing and
implementing the child's IEP, to gauge, at intermediate times during
the year, how well the child is progressing toward achievement of
the annual goal. IEP teams may continue to develop short-term
instructional objectives, that generally break the skills described
in the annual goal down into discrete components. The revised
statute and regulations also provide that, as an alternative, IEP
teams may develop benchmarks, which can be thought of as describing
the amount of progress the child is expected to make within
specified segments of the year. Generally, benchmarks establish
expected performance levels that allow for regular checks of
progress that coincide with the reporting periods for informing
parents of their child's progress toward achieving the annual goals.
An IEP team may use either short term objectives or benchmarks or a
combination of the two depending on the nature of the annual goals
and the needs of the child.
Special Education and Related Services and Supplementary Aids and
Services
The requirements regarding services provided to address a
child's present levels of educational performance and to make
progress toward the identified goals reinforce the emphasis on
progress in the general curriculum, as well as maximizing the extent
to which children with disabilities are educated with nondisabled
children. Section 300.347(a)(3) requires that the IEP include:
a statement of the special education and related services and
supplementary aids and services to be provided to the child, or on
behalf of the child, and a statement of the program modifications or
supports for school personnel that will be provided for the child--
(i) to advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals; (ii)
to be involved and progress in the general curriculum * * * and to
participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities; and
(iii) to be educated and participate with other children with
disabilities and nondisabled children in [extracurricular and other
nonacademic activities] * * * [Italics added.]
Extent to Which Child Will Participate With Nondisabled Children
Section 300.347(a)(4) requires that each child's IEP include
``An explanation of the extent, if any, to which the child will not
participate with nondisabled children in the regular class and in
[extracurricular and other nonacademic] activities * * *'' This is
consistent with the least restrictive environment (LRE) provisions
at Secs. 300.550-300.553, which include requirements that:
(1) each child with a disability be educated with nondisabled
children to the maximum extent appropriate (Sec. 300.550(b)(1));
(2) each child with a disability be removed from the regular
educational environment only when the nature or severity of the
child's disability is such that education in regular classes with
the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved
satisfactorily (Sec. 300.550(b)(1)); and
(3) to the maximum extent appropriate to the child's needs, each
child with a disability participates with nondisabled children in
nonacademic and extracurricular services and activities
(Sec. 300.553).
All services and educational placements under Part B must be
individually determined in light of each child's unique abilities
and needs, to reasonably promote the child's educational success.
Placing children with disabilities in this manner should enable each
disabled child to meet high expectations in the future.
Although Part B requires that a child with a disability not be
removed from the regular educational environment if the child's
education can be achieved satisfactorily in regular classes with the
use of supplementary aids and services, Part B's LRE principle is
intended to ensure that a child with a disability is served in a
setting where the child can be educated successfully. Even though
IDEA does not mandate regular class placement for every disabled
student, IDEA presumes that the first placement option considered
for each disabled student by the student's placement team, which
must include the parent, is the school the child would attend if not
disabled, with appropriate supplementary aids and services to
facilitate such placement. Thus, before a disabled child can be
placed outside of the regular educational environment, the full
range of supplementary aids and services that if provided would
facilitate the student's placement in the regular classroom setting
must be considered. Following that consideration, if a determination
is made that particular disabled student cannot be educated
satisfactorily in the regular educational environment, even with the
provision of appropriate supplementary aids and services, that
student then could be placed in a setting other than the regular
classroom. Later, if it becomes apparent that the child's IEP can be
carried out in a less restrictive setting, with the provision of
appropriate supplementary aids and services, if needed, Part B would
require that the child's placement be changed from the more
restrictive setting to a less restrictive setting. In all cases,
placement decisions must be individually determined on the basis of
each child's abilities and needs, and not solely on factors such as
category of disability, significance of disability, availability of
special education and related services, configuration of the service
delivery system, availability of space, or administrative
convenience. Rather, each student's IEP forms the basis for the
placement decision.
Further, a student need not fail in the regular classroom before
another placement can be considered. Conversely, IDEA does not
require that a student demonstrate achievement of a specific
performance level as a prerequisite for placement into a regular
classroom.
Participation in State or District-Wide Assessments of Student
Achievement
Consistent with Sec. 300.138(a), which sets forth a presumption
that children with disabilities will be included in general State
and district-wide assessment programs, and provided with appropriate
accommodations if necessary, Sec. 300.347(a)(5) requires that the
IEP for each student with a disability include: ``(i) a statement of
any individual modifications in the administration of State or
district-wide assessments of student achievement that are needed in
order for the child to participate in the assessment; and (ii) if
the IEP team determines that the child will not participate in a
particular State or district-wide assessment of student achievement
(or part of an assessment of student achievement), a statement of--
(A) Why that assessment is not appropriate for the child; and (B)
How the child will be assessed.''
Regular Education Teacher Participation in the Development, Review,
and Revision of IEPs
Very often, regular education teachers play a central role in
the education of children with disabilities (H. Rep. No. 105-95, p.
103 (1997); S. Rep. No. 105-17, p. 23 (1997)) and have important
expertise regarding the general curriculum and the general education
environment. Further, with the emphasis on involvement and progress
in the general curriculum added by the IDEA Amendments of 1997,
regular education teachers have an increasingly critical role
(together with special education and related services personnel) in
implementing the program of FAPE for most children with
disabilities, as described in their IEPs.
Accordingly, the IDEA Amendments of 1997 added a requirement
that each child's IEP team must include at least one regular
education teacher of the child, if the child is, or may be,
participating in the regular education environment (see
Sec. 300.344(a)(2)). (See also Secs. 300.346(d) on the role of a
regular education teacher in the development, review and revision of
IEPs.)
2. Must a child's IEP address his or her involvement in the
general curriculum, regardless of the nature and severity of the
child's disability and the setting in which the child is educated?
Yes. The IEP for each child with a disability (including
children who are educated in separate classrooms or schools) must
address how the child will be involved and progress in the general
curriculum. However, the Part B regulations recognize that some
children have other educational needs resulting from their
disability that also must be met, even though those needs are not
directly linked to participation in the general curriculum.
Accordingly, Sec. 300.347(a)(1)(2) requires that each child's
IEP include:
A statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or
short-term objectives related to--(i) Meeting the child's needs that
result from the child's disability to enable the child to be
involved in and progress in the general curriculum; and (ii) meeting
each of the child's other educational needs that result from the
child's disability. [Italics added.]
Thus, the IEP team for each child with a disability must make an
individualized determination regarding (1) how the child will be
involved and progress in the general curriculum and what needs that
result from the child's disability must be met to facilitate that
participation; (2) whether the child has any other educational needs
resulting from his or her disability that also must be met; and (3)
what special education and other services and supports must be
described in the child's IEP to address both sets of needs
(consistent with Sec. 300.347(a)). For example, if the IEP team
determines that in order for a child who is deaf to participate in
the general curriculum he or she needs sign language and materials
which reflect his or her language development, those needs (relating
to the child's participation in the general curriculum) must be
addressed in the child's IEP. In addition, if the team determines
that the child also needs to expand his or her vocabulary in sign
language that service must also be addressed in the applicable
components of the child's IEP. The IEP team may also wish to
consider whether there is a need for members of the child's family
to receive training in sign language in order for the child to
receive FAPE.
3. What must public agencies do to meet the requirements at
Secs. 300.344(a)(2) and 300.346(d) regarding the participation of a
``regular education teacher'' in the development, review, and
revision of IEPs, for children aged 3 through 5 who are receiving
preschool special education services?
If a public agency provides ``regular education'' preschool
services to non-disabled children, then the requirements of
Secs. 300.344(a)(2) and 300.346(d) apply as they do in the case of
older children with disabilities. If a public agency makes
kindergarten available to nondisabled children, then a regular
education kindergarten teacher could appropriately be the regular
education teacher who would be a member of the IEP team, and, as
appropriate, participate in IEP meetings, for a kindergarten-aged
child who is, or may be, participating in the regular education
environment.
If a public agency does not provide regular preschool education
services to nondisabled children, the agency could designate an
individual who, under State standards, is qualified to serve
nondisabled children of the same age.
4. Must the measurable annual goals in a child's IEP address all
areas of the general curriculum, or only those areas in which the
child's involvement and progress are affected by the child's
disability?
Section 300.347(a)(2) requires that each child's IEP include ``A
statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or short-
term objectives, related to--(i) meeting the child's needs that
result from the child's disability to enable the child to be
involved in and progress in the general curriculum * * *; and (ii)
meeting each of the child's other educational needs that result from
the child's disability. . . .'' (Italics added).
Thus, a public agency is not required to include in an IEP
annual goals that relate to areas of the general curriculum in which
the child's disability does not affect the child's ability to be
involved in and progress in the general curriculum. If a child with
a disability needs only modifications or accommodations in order to
progress in an area of the general curriculum, the IEP does not need
to include a goal for that area; however, the IEP would need to
specify those modifications or accommodations.
Public agencies often require all children, including children
with disabilities, to demonstrate mastery in a given area of the
general curriculum before allowing them to progress to the next
level or grade in that area. Thus, in order to ensure that each
child with a disability can effectively demonstrate competencies in
an applicable area of the general curriculum, it is important for
the IEP team to consider the accommodations and modifications that
the child needs to assist him or her in demonstrating progress in
that area.