Suchergebnisse

An extensive report is made of the work histories of 50 adults with significant disabilities who are served by Community Work Services, Inc., in Madison, Wisconsin. The primary purpose is to share information about the integrated vocational functioning of these adults, 90% of whom exited high school 15–24 years ago. A second purpose is to celebrate the inspiring achievements of a remarkable group of workers, their family members and the professionals who served them. A third is to affirm the validity and feasibility of integrated vocational functioning. Hopefully, by documenting what was and is operational, opportunities for and improvements in integrated services can be generated and more ordinary lives can be realized.

A detailed curriculum for teaching handicapped students word attack skills is presented. The specific word attack skills of picture clues, context clues, and initial consonant sounds are broken into small, teachable components with specific instructional procedures for each teaching objective. Data on three children who completed the program are presented.

It is now the responsibility of educators to provide for the education of severely handicapped students in what has been referred to as "the least restrictive educational environment." This paper discusses least restrictive educational environments in relation to segregation versus integration, interactions with nonhandicapped age peers, the ratio between handicapped and nonhandicapped students, chronologically age-appropriate educational environments, architectural barriers and prosthetized environments, "normal" organization of the school day, equal access to school facilities and resources, transportation, and ancillary services. The fundamental premise offered here is that educational service delivery models for severely handicapped students must closely approximate the best educational service delivery models used for nonhandicapped students.

It is now the responsibility of educators to provide for the education of severely handicapped students in what has been referred to as "the least restrictive educational environment." This paper discusses least restrictive educational environments in relation to segregation versus integration, interactions with nonhandicapped age peers, the ratio between handicapped and nonhandicapped students, chronologically age-appropriate educational environments, architectural barriers and prosthetized environments, "normal" organization of the school day, equal access to school facilities and resources, transportation, and ancillary services. The fundamental premise offered here is that educational service delivery models for severely handicapped students must closely approximate the best educational service delivery models used for nonhandicapped students.

The amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) in 2004 reiterate the significance of producing real postsecondary education, employment, and independent living outcomes. However, current employment data continue to show widespread unemployment and very limited access to inclusive community environments and services for adults with severe intellectual disabilities. On the contrary, data from the Transition Service Integration Model (N. J. Certo et al., 2003) demonstrate that these recalcitrant problems could be attenuated if two changes are implemented: The transition from school to adulthood components of IDEIA be strengthened to explicitly authorize school districts to subcontract with appropriate private agencies at the point of transition to produce direct-hire, individualized employment and adult living outcomes and that the federal government amend the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act to provide an entitlement to long-term support, creating a service system which parallels the functions of IDEIA after school exit.

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.

If severely handicapped people are to function as independently and productively as possible in a variety of least restrictive postschool community environments, they must have comprehensive and longitudinal interactions with nonhandicapped persons during the educational years, In this paper some arguments in favor of interaction with nonhandicapped persons and some of the arguments in favor of the segregation of severely handicapped persons are delineated and briefly discussed in a point/counterpoint format. The authors strongly support comprehensive and longitudinal interactions between severely handicapped and nonhandicapped persons.

Students with severe intellectual disabilities should be based in the same schools and classrooms in which they would be based if they were not disabled. However, a regular education classroom base in a home school is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for minimally acceptable education. These students should spend some of their time elsewhere. Nine of many factors to consider when determining the amount of time and the kinds of instruction that should be provided in regular education classrooms and other settings are addressed. The ideological and instructional assumptions underlying the benefits that can accrue from functioning in both regular education classrooms and elsewhere must be realized.

A home school is the one a student with severe intellectual disabilities would attend if he or she were not disabled. A clustered school is a regular school attended by an unnaturally large proportion of students with intellectual disabilities, but it is not the one any or most would attend if they were not labeled disabled. Students who have severe intellectual disabilities should attend home schools so that (a) all children can be prepared to function in a pluralistic society; (b) the most meaningful and individually appropriate instructional environments and activities can be used; (c) parents, guardians, brothers, and sisters can have reasonable access to schools and services; and (d) a wide range of social relationships with students and others who are not disabled can be developed, maintained, and enhanced over long periods of time. The individualized educational program (IEP) of each student should include individually determined kinds and amounts of instruction in chronological age-appropriate regular education classrooms; on school grounds, but not in regular education classrooms; and in a wide variety of integrated nonschool environments that will actually be used during nonschool hours and days. Individually determined kinds and amounts of direct therapy and other needed services also must be provided from a home school base. Once a student with intellectual disabilities attends a home school, the next major issue becomes whether the student should be based in a regular education or in a special education classroom.

All students with severe intellectual disabilities should attend the schools they would attend if they were not disabled; that is, their home schools. In a home school, each student must have an individualized educational program (IEP) that requires individualized instruction in chronological age-appropriate regular education classrooms; individual instruction on school grounds, but not in regular education classrooms; and individualized instruction in a wide variety of integrated nonschool environments that will actually be used during nonschool days and hours. The resources necessary to develop, maintain, and enhance an array of social relationships with nondisabled peers and others over long periods of time and individually appropriate therapy services are also considered critical components of each IEP. The focus here is whether students with severe intellectual disabilities should be based in special education classrooms or in chronological age-appropriate regular education classrooms in home schools. Ten challenging issues related to these two options are addressed.