Achieving Access to the General Curriculum for Students with Mental Retardation: A Curriculum Decision-Making Model

The 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act require that individualized education programs of students with disabilities include information about students engagement in and access to the general curriculum. The US Department of Education clearly intended this as a means to heighten expectations for students with disabilities and to align special education with school reform efforts. There are, however, a number of questions about how these mandates apply to the education of students with mental retardation. This article overviews access requirements, examines the intent and meaning of the language, and proposes a decision-making model to enable IEP teams to reach curriculum decisions that provide such access for students with mental retardation.