To provide students with disabilities and their families the best educational experience, the use of the functional behavioral assessment should be a viable option when challenging behaviors are interfering with learning opportunities. As the technology of FBA continues to improve through systematic research, educators should not default to the legal requirements, which may, as we have outlined here, leave considerable gaps.

Teams are a vital part of an effective multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) across both academics and behavior as well as special education. Making connections across the various teams used in MTSS and special education can be challenging. This resource from NCII and the PBIS Center, provides information about how data-based individualization (DBI) can support IEP implementation and provides a table with key considerations for teams working across the MTSS system.

This module, Parents: Supporting Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic, from the IRIS Center offers tips to support your child’s learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Including learners with significant communication needs in the general education classroom will require additional planning for general and special education teachers as well as related service providers. These include speech-language pathologists, physical and occupational therapists, and vision/hearing specialists. Coordinating the work of these service providers and leveraging their expertise can result in a high quality experience for all the learners in an inclusive class.

The National Center on Intensive Intervention has developed the tools charts to assist educators and families in becoming informed consumers who can select academic and behavioral progress monitoring tools. The charts display the technical rigor of the assessments as reviewed by a Technical Review Committee representing experts in assessment. The charts are interactive so that users can filter, sort, compare, and review the data in order to select an assessment that meets their needs.

On May 8, 2019, PROGRESS Center Advisors Drs. Mitch Yell, David Bateman and leaders Tessie Bailey and Teri Marx presented Recommendations and Resources for Preparing Educators in the Endrew Era. In this webinar, Drs. Yell and Bateman draw on their recent article Free Appropriate Public Education and Endrew F. v. Douglas County School System (2017): Implications for Personnel Preparation in Teacher Education and Special Education.

In this video, Drs. Mitch Yell and Tessie Bailey share information about the 2017 Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. They highlight implications for writing a student's IEP and discuss the importance of setting ambitious IEP goals to ensure that students make progress considering their individual circumstances.

The use of empirically validated instructional practices is pivotal for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities to make academic progress in inclusive settings. The purpose of this literature review is to extend previous literature reviews to bring the review of literature up-to-date on pedagogical practices for students with the most significant disabilities in inclusive settings.