EXTENDED SCHOOL YEAR PROGRAMS - A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN CURRICULUM MODEL

Appropriate education guaranteed to children with disabilities under P .L. 94-142 has been translated by the courts to mean more than 180 day s of education. There is now a strong legal precedent establishing the right to an extended school year (summer school) for students with se vere disabilities. The courts have left open to interpretation, howeve r, issues related to the program implementation. Descriptions of exten ded school year programs vary widely and include respite for parents, continuation of the regular school year curriculum, and remediation in skill areas. The only consensus seems to be that these programs shoul d be tailored to individual needs. In the present article a systematic approach to curriculum development for students with severe disabilit ies enrolled in extended school year programs was described. This appr oach is (a) community driven, (b) consistent with each student's IEP o bjectives for the regular school year, (c) tailored to the individual student, and (d) consistent with current best practices of teaching fu nctional skills performed by individuals without disabilities in a var iety of integrated nonschool settings. Student progress data were pres ented.