STEM for Students With Severe Disabilities

This year, 2015, marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the “Education of All Handicapped Children Act” (now IDEIA), which opened the doors to public education for all children with a disability. Since that time, educational practices evolved from getting students with disabilities “ready” to be mainstreamed into regular classrooms to mandating that the general education classroom is the least restrictive instructional setting for all children. Recent iterations of the law now require that these students also have access to the same curriculum as their peers without a disability. Thus, if STEM content is part of the general education curriculum, these students also must be provided access to this instruction.