TASH Position Statement with Policy Recommendations on Inclusive Education

Revised October / November 2025

Download the Inclusive Education Position Statement as a PDF.
Download a plain language summary of this Position Statement.

Statement of Purpose

TASH believes that all students with disabilities, including those with the most extensive support needs, must

1. be presumed competent;
2. held to high expectations;
3. be valued and contributing general education students who are fully participating members of
   1. the schools they would attend if they did not have a disability;
   2. grade-level general education classes for at least 80% of the school day, in natural proportions; and
   3. extracurricular activities;
4. have access to and make progress on the state-adopted general education standards expected of all students through the general education curriculum;
5. participate in general education classrooms (e.g., lessons, activities, routines) throughout the school day as well as school sponsored activities with accommodations, modification, supports, and services;
6. receive specially-designed instruction (e.g., accommodations, modifications, supports, services) that is embedded within inclusive general education lessons, activities, and routines throughout the school-day, as well as during school-sponsored activities; and
7. have access to opportunities to engage in meaningful academic and social interactions, and develop reciprocal relationships with their age- and grade-level classmates across inclusive general education settings; and
8. be provided with choice and agency in the activities described herein.

To accomplish this, the students should have effective evidence-based instruction across general education lessons, activities, and routines. In addition, the students should have instruction on, and constant opportunities to use, both robust augmentative and alternative communication systems if needed, as well as multiple tools for effective oral and written communication across all school contexts and school-sponsored activities. Their performance on state assessments should be part of their school and district public accountability system. Their transition between grades and schools, as well as transition to post-secondary education, employment and careers, and life in their communities, also should be components of the school and district data on student outcomes. The evidence of over 50 years of research is clear that this results in better short- and long-term educational outcomes for all general education students, those both with and without disabilities.

Rational

A high-quality public school education is the right of all school-age children and youth. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA; 2004) mandates that children with disabilities have the right to attend public schools, receive a free appropriate public education, and have access to and make progress in content addressed during general education classes, lessons, activities, and routines. Thus, students with disabilities, including those with the most extensive support needs, have a right to be educated in general education classes with other age- and grade-level general education students who do not have disabilities, and with whom they have opportunities to develop reciprocal relationships. Education in general education classes, however, implies more than just physical presence; it includes

1. being a contributing member of their school and class;
2. having access to evidence-based specially-designed instruction during general education classes, lessons, activities, and routines; and
3. making progress on the state-adopted general education standards taught to all students.

Research clearly demonstrates that students with the most extensive support needs benefit most academically and socially from placement in general education classes for at least 80% of the school day. Such placement constitutes their Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) and best prepares them for postsecondary education, employment and careers, and life in their community.

Similarly, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the current reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, recognizes that our education system must ensure that all children have access to a high quality, grade-level standards-based education. It also recognizes that schools must provide services and supports to students who are at-risk for not making progress in school.

There has been a long history of exclusion and discrimination resulting in many students with the most extensive support needs being mistreated and denied access to the age- and grade-level general education curriculum, general education classmates, general education teacher expertise, and general education activities and routines. They also are being denied access to the school they would attend if they did not have a disability. Despite decades of research and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal investment in identifying and validating evidence-based inclusive education practices, many students with the most extensive support needs continue to be unnecessarily segregated in self-contained classes and separate schools, as well as isolated from age- and grade-level classmates. In these separate settings, students often are being provided a diluted and inferior education; too often they do not receive meaningful instruction on the general education curriculum. Rather, they are: (a) provided access to curricula that are not aligned to the general education standards for their age- and grade-level; (b) not provided opportunities to interact and develop relationships with age- and grade-level classmates; and (c) not provided or prepared for the same opportunities as their age- and grade- level peers for smooth transition from school to adult life within their chosen community. Thus, many students with the most extensive support needs continue to be denied a free appropriate public education through access to evidence-based practices for instruction on the general education curriculum in the school and classes they would attend if they did not have a disability.

Inclusive Education Within Inclusive Schools

Inclusive education exists within inclusive schools that reflect the five Frames of References with the Reflecting on an Inclusive System of Education (Ryndak et al., 2022): https://publications.ici.umn.edu/ties/ties-ier-rise/step-two-reflecting-on-inclusive-practices

1. “All means all” specifically includes all students with significant cognitive disabilities.
2. Placement is in general education classes and other inclusive settings with their age/grade-level peers in the school they would attend if they did not have a disability.
3. Student-centered strengths-based approaches for inclusive education occur within the general education curriculum, classes, lessons, activities, and routines.
4. Specially-designed instruction occurs within general education classes, lessons, activities, and routines.
5. Barriers to inclusive education exist within systems and environments, not within students or staff.

These Frames of Reference are embodied within four focus areas comprising evidence-based practices essential to sustainable inclusive systems (Ryndak et al., 2022).

Policy Recommendations for Federal and State Agencies and Organizations

TASH calls on policymakers to:

1. Fund support services, create services within general education classes in the school each student would attend if they did not have disabilities, and teach general education curricula that meet the needs of all students, including students with the most extensive support needs. All students, including students with the most extensive support needs benefit from participation in inclusive schools which reflect evidence-based practices.
2. Ensure students with disabilities, including those with extensive support needs, receive inclusive education services from education teams comprising special and general education teachers, as well as related services personnel, licensed to provide evidence-based practices for the students they serve.
3. Reinforce the IDEA’s guarantee of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).
   • Revamp the LRE Determination Process:
     • Redefine LRE as the age- and grade-level general education classes, lessons, activities, and routines.
     • State that inclusion in age- and grade-level general education classes in the school a student would attend if they did not have a disability is the initial placement, and always the preferred placement.
     • Add the requirement that all students receive instruction first in general education classes with appropriate supports and services.
     • Revise language around a “continuum of services” to clearly state that services and supports should be implemented in general education classes and settings with appropriate supports and services.
     • When an IEP team elects to place a student in a more restrictive setting, require their IEP to include proactive strategies to be implemented to address barriers to a student’s access to placement in age- and grade-level general education classes, so students move to a less restrictive environmental option as soon as possible, but at least by the following year.
     • Describe for families of students with disabilities the placement options and what research indicates about them, including the consequences of each type of placement on expectations, curriculum, access to general education, opportunities to learn, and outcomes.
     • Require the use of evidence- and research-based practices with fidelity for data-based decision making related to LRE, to determine the level of effectiveness and individualization of supports and services.
   • Monitor compliance with IDEA requirements related to IEP development to ensure that, to the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities, including those in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with students who do not have disabilities. Special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of students with disabilities from the general educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in general education classes, EVEN WITH the use of supplementary aids and services, modifications, and accommodations cannot be achieved satisfactorily.
   • Tie Specially-Designed Instruction to General Education Objectives:
     • Plan specially-designed instruction in collaboration with general and special education teachers.
     • Align specially-designed instruction with the age- and grade-level general educational curriculum.
     • Verify specially-designed instruction is embedded during general education instruction within general education classes, lessons, activities, and routines.
   • Ensure Access to Adequate Communication Supports Vital for Educational Success:
     • Include a funded plan for developing a robust multi-modal communication system for students of any age who do not yet have a symbolic mode of communication (i.e., oral language, augmentative communication system, and/or manual signs) that they use fluently over a full range of communicative functions.
     • IEP documents should be consistent with recommendations in Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
     • Provide simultaneous access to communications systems and speech services: Students who do not have a robust communication system cannot be dismissed from speech services.
     • Assure portability of federally guaranteed communication services (e.g., school to school, district to district, state to state) and promote stability in the implementation of IEPs.
   • Ensure Access to Other Assistive Technology Vital for Educational Success:
     • Require Assistive Technology (AT) that ensures internet access and improves each student’s learning.
     • Establish clear qualifications for AT specialists and guidance for school districts that ensures collaboration between AT specialists and district information technology personnel, so that applications and accessories are added as needed to support each student’s learning in real-time.
     • Require collaboration among education personnel, families, and community partners (e.g. Medicaid, Medicare, private funders, state AT Coalitions) to ensure students and their families acquire appropriate AT.
   • Compliance of School Choice Options with IDEA:
     • Regularly review school choice initiatives including public charter schools, vouchers, and voucher-like programs (including but not limited to traditional vouchers, education savings accounts, tuition tax credits/scholarships, or microgrants) to ensure they comply with IDEA as well as the accountability provisions under ESSA and do not adversely affect public education by diverting public funds to private schools or reducing revenue through preferential tax treatment.
     • Challenge the use of school choice initiatives (e.g., vouchers) to use public funding in ways that result in students with disabilities being served in separate settings and losing their right to free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.
   • Require Universal Design for Learning Framework:
     • Adopt the definition of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) from the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) and require training, job-embedded professional development, technical assistance, and coaching on UDL
     • Adopt language that requires materials, curriculum, instruction, and assessments to be aligned with the UDL framework.
   • Implement a Universally-Designed and Culturally Responsive Assessment Process:
     • Ensure appropriate assessments for all students with disabilities by developing universally-designed and culturally responsive assessments that accurately measure the progress of students with disabilities.
     • Require ongoing professional development and systemic evaluation to review all IEP assessments, progress monitoring, and decisions so they are universally designed and culturally responsive to prevent inappropriate classifications
   • Facilitate Early Intervention and Increase Investments in Universal Pre-K:
     • Fund inclusive preschool programs.
   • Ensure Support for Embedding Inclusive Education in the IEP Process:
     • Fund qualified Inclusion Support Specialists who support the development and implementation of effective inclusive practices for students with extensive support needs, beginning with the transition from Pre-K to Kindergarten.
       • Define the Inclusion Support Specialist as a provider of job-embedded professional development, technical assistance, and coaching
       • Require expertise in skills related to inclusive practices (e.g., adapting materials, evidence-based practices for inclusion, embedded and specially-designed instruction, individualized accommodations and modifications, and/or different performance expectations).
   • Strengthen Systems Evaluations on the Extent to Which Their Services Reflect Evidence-Based Inclusive Education Practices for all students:
     • Evaluate the quality of inclusive practices at the state, district, and school levels through the use of a validated tool (e.g., Reflecting on an Inclusive System of Education).
   • Require the use of Evidence-Based Inclusive Education Practices:
     • Fund research, and develop and implement evidence-based practices in inclusive districts and schools from pre-school through postsecondary education to support students with extensive support needs.
   • Fund Incentives to Promote Increased Use of Inclusive Educational Practices:
     • Tie funding related to IDEA implementation to improvements in LRE, especially for students with extensive support needs and those who historically have been segregated.
     • Increase funding for professional development to improve inclusive education practices.
     • Support the development of flexible scheduling that requires related services providers to provide direct and indirect services during instructional time in the classroom.
   • Require Successful and Smooth Transitions to Adult Life:
     • Align the age of transition services to be consistent with the pre-vocational provisions in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014.
     • Require schools to coordinate with state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies in the implementation of transition IEP requirements and WIOA provisions.
4. Enforce the Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) prohibiting the use of seclusion, aversive interventions, and restraints (i.e., physical, mechanical, chemical) in educational settings.
• Ensure that individuals with the most extensive support needs are not exempt from KASSA.
• Ensure that students with challenging behaviors are not prevented from attending general education classes with age- and grade-level classmates in the school they would attend if they did not have disabilities.
5. Strengthen federal protection of students who take the Alternate Assessment.
   • Alternate assessments should be directly related to age- and grade-level general education content standards, rather than result in alternate curricula used for instruction.
     • Eligibility for a state’s alternate assessment should not result in either a student being removed from general education classes or lack of access to any aspect of their age- and grade-level general education curricula. Participation in alternate assessments should not automatically disqualify a student from receiving a diploma or equivalent.
     • Families must be informed of the consequences to their child’s participation in an alternate assessment, and school districts must be required to provide informed choice about assessment and graduation options.
     • States and local education agencies must review student outcome data, policies, practices, and structures to determine unintended consequences of a student’s engagement in alternate assessments (e.g., such as the creation of an alternate track, over- or under-representation, or use of a primary curricula that is different from age- and grade-level general education curricula).
     • IEPs must outline plans for a student initially placed on an alternate assessment “track” to be transitioned back to the diploma track.
6. Fund Postsecondary Education: Fully fund disability provisions in Title VII of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), including the Model Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities and Coordinating Center, National Technical Assistance Centers, and programs to provide students with disabilities with a quality higher education.
   • Ensure students with disabilities, including those with extensive support needs, have access to all forms of federal financial aid;
   • Ensure that all students with disabilities have access to academic courses and the full range of campus programs and activities, including integrated housing;
   • Require institutions of higher education to accept a student’s relevant formal documentation of disability from high school when seeking accommodations so students are not required to undergo new costly evaluation to re-prove existence of a disability;
   • Ensure that information is made publicly available on the types of support services offered to help students and their families in selecting an institution of higher education; and
   • Ensure proper implementation of provisions of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (2018) regarding greater inclusion and access for students with disabilities.
7. Provide Federal guidance that addresses challenges and opportunities as a result of moving to hybrid or virtual instruction for ensuring students with extensive support needs are able to access and successfully participate in the general education curriculum with age- and grade-level peers.
   • Ensure that students with extensive support needs have hybrid options while at the same time ensuring that virtual education does not become a new segregated placement for such students.
     • Related Services Personnel: provide federal guidance that allows school districts flexibility in reimbursing the provision of services that can be done virtually v. services that need to be hands-on and provided in person (and services that can/should be offered in both a virtual and in-person environment).
       • Example: Use of paraeducators in a virtual, hybrid, or in-person environment.
     • Reaffirm the responsibility of school districts to finance/provide any indirect services necessary to support an inclusive education under a virtual, hybrid, or full-time in-person model.
   • Require that all state teacher and administrator licensure and/or certification programs include both coursework in evidence-based practices, specialized instruction, Universal Design for Learning, and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy; and experiential-based fieldwork placements where students with extensive support needs are included in the general education classroom 80% or more of the day in natural proportions.

References

Ryndak, D. L., Taub, D., & McDaid, P. (2022). Reflecting on Inclusive Systems of Education: State Level. TIES National Technical Assistance Center, University of Minnesota.

Ryndak, D. L., Taub, D., & McDaid, P. (2022). Reflecting on Inclusive Systems of Education: District Level. TIES National Technical Assistance Center, University of Minnesota.

Ryndak, D. L., Taub, D., & McDaid, P. (2022). Reflecting on Inclusive Systems of Education: School Level. TIES National Technical Assistance Center, University of Minnesota.

U.S. Department of Education (2015). Every Student Succeeds Act, Pub. L. No. 114-95, 129 Stat. 1802.

U.S. Department of Education. (2004). Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 300