Our students with severe disabilities have been forced down an academic track that, thanks to the Common Core and its derivatives, we have to teach. Imagine teaching students you know will need to get on a bus, order a meal, communicate clearly as adults, but instead, we are teaching them concepts their brains cannot yet understand, like Chemistry. Its not that they won’t one day be able to leaen it, but these students need time and the resources to become independent.
Free us from the common core, which is failing general and special education students.
Students experiencing significant limitations as a result of a disability condition(s) do need to have the life skills training, though sometimes the emphasis on this overshadows their abilities and needs to learn other important academic lessons within their abilities. It happens where schools go from one extreme (ie only life skills v academics) to where the individual is missing opportunities for their future. Create a balanced IEP for the individual student to accommodate their learning so they can grow and thrive.