Description
A case is made for fully merging general and special education curricula in developing programs to prepare candidates for the new Kansas K-6 Unified direct entry license. [The complete 24-page K-6 Unified Standards are included in the appendix.] The author of this paper was present at important meetings which were instrumental in the decision of the Kansas State Board of Education to approve standards for the new license which require candidates to receive training in low-incidence as well as high-incidence special education, combined with elementary education coursework, in a four-year undergraduate degree program. As a special education faculty member at an institution of higher education (IHE), the author was also involved in discussions with colleagues at his institution and at other schools across the state during the 2016 calendar year, when the details of the K-6 Unified standards were being developed and debated. This paper suggests a context for restructuring teacher preparation in order to most effectively transform a special education culture which has, up to now, prevented children with severe disabilities from having access to the general curriculum in inclusive settings with their same-age peers.
