The Importance of Elements of Inclusive Education

The Joint Position Statement on Education adopted by AAIDD and The Arc in 2018 is a comprehensive listing of elements of quality inclusion needed to support students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to access the general curriculum with their same-age peers. All children and youth with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD) must receive a free appropriate public education that includes fair evaluation, ambitious goals, challenging objective, the right to progress, individualized supports and services, high quality instruction, and access to the general education curriculum in age-appropriate inclusive settings. Using focus group methodology, the authors investigated how teachers plan for instruction, how teachers view a systematic problem-solving process for support planning, and what resources/technical assistance would help with individualized supports. Results of this study, which focused on data collected in 2012, question if youth with IDD are prepared for adulthood and suggest that schools explicitly teach technology coupled with social media to promote social capital.