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The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the No Child Left Behind Act requires that students with extensive support needs have access to, participate in, and make progress on the general curriculum along with their grade-level general education peers. This article suggests that the terms used in this legislation have been interpreted differently across educational personnel, parents, advocates, and researchers, and that these differing interpretations have resulted in confusion and controversy related to services for this set of students. The purpose of this article was to initiate a discussion about the role of context when conceptualizing access to the general curriculum for students with extensive support needs related to communication, physical, and intellectual disabilities. It begins by discussing the federal mandate and regulations related to access to the general curriculum. It then presents differing interpretations of the concept of access to the general curriculum for students with extensive support needs, components that comprise access, and the impact of those interpretations on services. Next, it suggests an approach to conceptualizing educational services to guide policy makers, educators, and researchers as they develop, implement, and study effective practices that facilitate access to the general curriculum for students with extensive support needs. The article concludes with the suggestion that researchers, administrators, policy makers, and stakeholders must develop and hold a common understanding of the construct access to the general curriculum that is based on findings of the extant research; and that for all students, including students with extensive support needs, general education contexts are critical to accessing the general curriculum.

What key issues and challenges affect the lives of people with severe disabilities todayâ€"and what should tomorrow's professionals do to address them? Aligned with the core values and agenda of TASH, this visionary text prepares professionals to strengthen supports and services for people with disabilities across the lifespan. Readers will fully examine more than a dozen critical topics in the lives of people with severe disabilities; explore necessary reforms to policy and practice; and set clear goals and priorities for improving early intervention, education, health care, behavior suppor