IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Section 300.552 Placements (e) states: “A child with a disability is not removed from education in age-appropriate regular classes solely because of needed modifications in the general curriculum.” So, under the law, a student should not be denied placement in a regular ed classroom just because she needs curriculum modifications. This is one in a series of articles about curriculum modifications.
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It’s pretty simple: under the law, a child should not be denied placement in a regular ed classroom just because she needs curriculum modifications. Unfortunately, many students with disabilities are routinely segregated in special ed/resource rooms because they aren’t “at grade level” in reading, math, or other academic subject.
Some educators may feel a student won’t benefit from traditional academics—but they’ve probably never given the student the opportunity to try! (And when they do, they’ll be pleasantly surprised!) Other educators may feel they don’t know how to modify curriculum or don’t have the personnel/resources to do so. Parents, too, often feel ignorant or helpless when it comes to curriculum modifications. And while there is no recipe book for curriculum modifications—no one-size-fits-all strategy would work since each child, each class, each subject, each teacher is different—modifying curriculum is not rocket science! Click here to continue.