Access to the General Curriculum: Systems Change or Tinker Some More?

Special education as practiced today remains firmly anchored in the original logic of the Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (PL 94-142). Subsequent reauthorizations of the statute have included language designed to increase access to the general curriculum by special needs students but have not addressed the underlying medical-model logic, a product of the “age of specialization” that was in full bloom in the 1970s. This article presents an argument for replacing the medical model with prevention logic that, at present, is embodied in the emerging applications of school-wide response to intervention (RTI). This replacement logic is described and exemplified by a school that has completed the transformation from a categorical, self-contained special education delivery system to an RTI-driven, fully integrated system that serves all students in grade-level, general education. A case example of a student at the school with extensive support/service needs is examined. Finally, the article offers a look at some of the policy implications of the new logic that would need to be addressed in further reauthorization of both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to advance the agenda.