Planning Supports for Students With Intellectual Disability in General Education Classrooms

For most students with intellectual disability (ID), education in the least restrictive environment has been determined to be separate special education classrooms. One means to promote greater participation in general education classrooms is for educators to identify and arrange individualized supports that students need to be successful. We conducted focus group interviews with 33 educators in 6 schools from 3 states to explore how they currently plan supports for their students, obtain their opinions on the usefulness of a systematic problem-solving process for supports planning, and gather their perspectives on resources, including the nature of technical assistance, that would be most helpful in planning individualized supports. Themes from the focus group interview transcripts were identified and recommendations for increasing educator competencies in planning and monitoring individualized supports for students with ID in general education classrooms are provided.