Sam is an 11th grade student with significant intellectual disabilities who is attending his neighborhood high school. He receives instruction in both the general education and special education classrooms. According to his most recent assessment (9/24/XX) on Stanford Binet-5, Sam has a full scale IQ of 50. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale was administered on October 12, 20XX and Sam scored as follows: Communication, 40; Daily Living, 55; and Socialization, 50, Ab Quotient was 48. His highest areas were in receptive communication, play and leisure time, and gross motor skills. The areas he scored lowest on were socialization, expressive communication and written communication, community living skills, and fine motor skills. Based on these assessments and Sam’s continued need for “extensive, direct, individualized, and repeated instruction and substantial supports to achieve measurable gains in adapted and modified curriculum, Sam’s Individualized Education Team determined and reaffirms each year with the consent of his parents that he will receive instruction aligned to the Maryland Alternate Educational Framework and participate in the Maryland Alternate Assessment. He will leave school at the age of 21 with a Maryland Certificate of Program Completion.

Planning for Sam's eventual transition began at age 14. Sam’s parents have completed Parent Transition Surveys with input from Sam. On the Picture Interest Career Survey (PICS) the pictures represent individuals working in a variety of settings and at various skill levels. The PICS user is asked to choose one picture out of the three presented in each item. Sam’s main interest areas were Human Services (social) and Health Science (social).

Sam’s teacher administered the Supports Intensity Scale to his parents to determine the frequency, amount, and type of support needs in the home living, community living, learning, employment, health and safety, and social activities Sam will need after graduation from high school. The assessments indicate that Sam will need regular and extensive support in all areas of adult life to achieve his post-school goals. In addition, he will need protection and advocacy services for managing money, legal issues, self-advocacy, and protection from exploitation. Sam, his parents, and teachers feel that it would be beneficial for him to be involved in postsecondary education. Sam has recently received an approved Medicaid waiver services that will provide one-on-one ongoing daily and adult living skills training at the local community college. This type of setting would allow Sam to develop skills in some of his areas of interest as well as provide a social framework.

Sam’s specially designed instruction based on the Alternate Educational Framework reflects content from the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards at a reduced breadth, depth, and level of complexity. He receives reading, writing, and math instruction in the special education classroom. His coursework is delivered in individual and small group settings. Sam also participates in some general education courses. He is currently taking Earth Science and Culinary Arts and has also taken Physical Education, Art, and weight training. He receives specially designed instruction and supplementary aids and services in these classes, including support from a paraprofessional to encourage interaction.

Sam communicates primarily with spoken phrases and short sentences (2 – 7 words), supplemented with some gestures. He has some articulation errors and sometimes omits grammatical markers (such as past tense, plurals, etc.). He can be readily understood by familiar listeners, but strangers have more difficulty comprehending what he is saying, especially when the context is not known. He uses some repair strategies (such as repeating himself or pointing), but often becomes frustrated or shut down when he is not understood. The team agrees on the need to explore communication options for Sam to use with unfamiliar listeners, especially as he approaches post-secondary options. Sam responds readily to preferred staff members and sometimes initiates verbal exchanges with them; he needs prompting to respond and initiate with peers and with new adults.

Sam’s language comprehension abilities exceed his expressive skills. He follows multi-step oral directions.

Sam’s literacy skills were measured by the Whole-to-Part Assessment, which is derived from the Qualitative Reading Inventory. The QRI is an individually administered informal reading inventory (QRI) designed to provide information about (1) conditions under which students can identify words and comprehend text successfully and (2) conditions that appear to result in unsuccessful word identification or comprehension. According the informal Qualitative Reading Inventory Sam’s word identification level was measured at the Pre-Primer level 2. In the areas of comprehension, both language and silent reading, Sam’s scores were at the pre-primer level. Sam is interested in learning new words and enjoys flipping through a picture dictionary and making connections between what he sees and his own knowledge and experiences. After listening to a short informational text (3 – 8 sentences) with an upper elementary vocabulary level read aloud, he responds to comprehension questions that don’t require inferences by answering yes or no questions or selecting the correct picture (from a field of 4) with 70% accuracy.

His deficits in short-term memory, reasoning, and, expressive and receptive communication delays affect his ability to make inferences, rule-out irrelevant details and summarize more complex texts, express objective opinions, and affect his comprehension of grade-level materials.

Sam continues to work on recognizing familiar words in context and on using information from print and media sources to answer questions, complete activities, etc. He is working on accessing literary and informational texts using audiobooks, text-to-speech tools, and other methods, as well as using word recognition and decoding skills.

Based on formal assessments, quarterly progress reports and classroom performance, Sam’s skills in the area of written expression fall at approximately a mid-1st grade level. On 5/24/XXXX, Sam was assessed using the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measure of Academic Progress in Language usage. Sam uses correct subject-verb agreement in short sentences and he can create lists to describe the sequence of a short task. When a peer tutor or adult scribes his ideas and enters them into a word-processing program with word-prediction and text-to-speech features, he can edit and expand his writing to include more details. He is learning to use to speech-to-text to have more independence in writing activities.

Sam requires one-on-one support, repetitive instruction, prompting to understand relationships, patterns and basic operations in mathematics. Based on the Woodcock Johnson III - Test of Academic Achievement administered on May 20XX, Sam obtained a standard score of 36 in the area of Calculation. Such score is within the very low range. His Math Fluency standard score is 53, which falls within the very low range.

Sam responds well with visual timers and additional processing time to help him cope with transitions. He works best with additional time to process information and with familiar people. Currently, he requires moderate levels of staff prompting and redirection to help remain focused when working as measured on 4 of 5 opportunities. Sometimes he may exhibit more anxiety when a familiar classroom staff is absent.

Sam does show an awareness of his peers; his social interactions skills with peers are at a basic level. When he is with peers, the interaction is typically initiated by staff prompts. When in-group setting, he prefers to have personal space or to be engaged with staff. Sam demonstrates low self-awareness skills. He depends on close staff supervision and guidance to ensure his safety and wellbeing at school as well as in the community.

Sam’s family reports that he enjoys school, although his tendency to stay up late at night pursuing favorite activities like drawing sometimes make it hard for him to get up in the morning and get to school on time. According to his mother, Sam also enjoys attending all sporting events at the high school. He particularly likes basketball. They would like Sam to continue to develop his academic skills and especially his communication abilities. Sam and his parents are interested in exploring options outside of the high school setting, including employment and community college based programming for his last years of school before he exits at age 21.

Sam and his family would like him to live in an apartment with appropriate supports after he graduates from high school. They would like to see him become more independent in his daily care skills and choose healthy foods for snacks and breakfast. His mom would also like to see him participate in community-based supported employment experiences that could lead to part-time paid employment.

Sam shows an interest in a variety of academic tasks. He seems to enjoy learning and expresses an interest in discovering more about certain words and topics. He shows a great deal of interest in science related topics and drawing. He enjoys drawing pictures of cartoon characters, then telling the story to staff.

Sam’s difficulties in acquiring, retaining and applying academic and adaptive skills have consistently impacted his learning in core content classes, interaction in social settings with peers and independence in the home and community, according to assessments and parent/teacher reports.

Sam requires specially designed instruction to support his access to and progress in core content areas aligned to the alternate instructional framework and to support direct instruction for independent and functional learning activities.


Sam is an 11th grade student with significant intellectual disabilities who is attending his neighborhood high school. He receives instruction in both the general education and special education classrooms. According to his most recent assessment (9/24/XX) on Stanford Binet-5, Sam has a full scale IQ of 50. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale was administered on October 12, 20XX and Sam scored as follows: Communication, 40; Daily Living, 55; and Socialization, 50, Ab Quotient was 48. His highest areas were in receptive communication, play and leisure time, and gross motor skills. The areas he scored lowest on were socialization, expressive communication and written communication, community living skills, and fine motor skills. Based on these assessments and Sam’s continued need for “extensive, direct, individualized, and repeated instruction and substantial supports to achieve measurable gains in adapted and modified curriculum, Sam’s Individualized Education Team determined and reaffirms each year with the consent of his parents that he will receive instruction aligned to the Maryland Alternate Educational Framework and participate in the Maryland Alternate Assessment. He will leave school at the age of 21 with a Maryland Certificate of Program Completion.

Planning for Sam's eventual transition began at age 14. Sam’s parents have completed Parent Transition Surveys with input from Sam. On the Picture Interest Career Survey (PICS) the pictures represent individuals working in a variety of settings and at various skill levels. The PICS user is asked to choose one picture out of the three presented in each item. Sam’s main interest areas were Human Services (social) and Health Science (social).

Sam’s teacher administered the Supports Intensity Scale to his parents to determine the frequency, amount, and type of support needs in the home living, community living, learning, employment, health and safety, and social activities Sam will need after graduation from high school. The assessments indicate that Sam will need regular and extensive support in all areas of adult life to achieve his post-school goals. In addition, he will need protection and advocacy services for managing money, legal issues, self-advocacy, and protection from exploitation. Sam, his parents, and teachers feel that it would be beneficial for him to be involved in postsecondary education. Sam has recently received an approved Medicaid waiver services that will provide one-on-one ongoing daily and adult living skills training at the local community college. This type of setting would allow Sam to develop skills in some of his areas of interest as well as provide a social framework.

Sam’s specially designed instruction based on the Alternate Educational Framework reflects content from the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards at a reduced breadth, depth, and level of complexity. He receives reading, writing, and math instruction in the special education classroom. His coursework is delivered in individual and small group settings. Sam also participates in some general education courses. He is currently taking Earth Science and Culinary Arts and has also taken Physical Education, Art, and weight training. He receives specially designed instruction and supplementary aids and services in these classes, including support from a paraprofessional to encourage interaction.

Sam communicates primarily with spoken phrases and short sentences (2 – 7 words), supplemented with some gestures. He has some articulation errors and sometimes omits grammatical markers (such as past tense, plurals, etc.). He can be readily understood by familiar listeners, but strangers have more difficulty comprehending what he is saying, especially when the context is not known. He uses some repair strategies (such as repeating himself or pointing), but often becomes frustrated or shut down when he is not understood. The team agrees on the need to explore communication options for Sam to use with unfamiliar listeners, especially as he approaches post-secondary options. Sam responds readily to preferred staff members and sometimes initiates verbal exchanges with them; he needs prompting to respond and initiate with peers and with new adults.

Sam’s language comprehension abilities exceed his expressive skills. He follows multi-step oral directions.

Sam’s literacy skills were measured by the Whole-to-Part Assessment, which is derived from the Qualitative Reading Inventory. The QRI is an individually administered informal reading inventory (QRI) designed to provide information about (1) conditions under which students can identify words and comprehend text successfully and (2) conditions that appear to result in unsuccessful word identification or comprehension. According the informal Qualitative Reading Inventory Sam’s word identification level was measured at the Pre-Primer level 2. In the areas of comprehension, both language and silent reading, Sam’s scores were at the pre-primer level. Sam is interested in learning new words and enjoys flipping through a picture dictionary and making connections between what he sees and his own knowledge and experiences. After listening to a short informational text (3 – 8 sentences) with an upper elementary vocabulary level read aloud, he responds to comprehension questions that don’t require inferences by answering yes or no questions or selecting the correct picture (from a field of 4) with 70% accuracy.

His deficits in short-term memory, reasoning, and, expressive and receptive communication delays affect his ability to make inferences, rule-out irrelevant details and summarize more complex texts, express objective opinions, and affect his comprehension of grade-level materials.

Sam continues to work on recognizing familiar words in context and on using information from print and media sources to answer questions, complete activities, etc. He is working on accessing literary and informational texts using audiobooks, text-to-speech tools, and other methods, as well as using word recognition and decoding skills.

Based on formal assessments, quarterly progress reports and classroom performance, Sam’s skills in the area of written expression fall at approximately a mid-1st grade level. On 5/24/XXXX, Sam was assessed using the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measure of Academic Progress in Language usage. Sam uses correct subject-verb agreement in short sentences and he can create lists to describe the sequence of a short task. When a peer tutor or adult scribes his ideas and enters them into a word-processing program with word-prediction and text-to-speech features, he can edit and expand his writing to include more details. He is learning to use to speech-to-text to have more independence in writing activities.

Sam requires one-on-one support, repetitive instruction, prompting to understand relationships, patterns and basic operations in mathematics. Based on the Woodcock Johnson III - Test of Academic Achievement administered on May 20XX, Sam obtained a standard score of 36 in the area of Calculation. Such score is within the very low range. His Math Fluency standard score is 53, which falls within the very low range.

Sam responds well with visual timers and additional processing time to help him cope with transitions. He works best with additional time to process information and with familiar people. Currently, he requires moderate levels of staff prompting and redirection to help remain focused when working as measured on 4 of 5 opportunities. Sometimes he may exhibit more anxiety when a familiar classroom staff is absent.

Sam does show an awareness of his peers; his social interactions skills with peers are at a basic level. When he is with peers, the interaction is typically initiated by staff prompts. When in-group setting, he prefers to have personal space or to be engaged with staff. Sam demonstrates low self-awareness skills. He depends on close staff supervision and guidance to ensure his safety and wellbeing at school as well as in the community.

Sam’s family reports that he enjoys school, although his tendency to stay up late at night pursuing favorite activities like drawing sometimes make it hard for him to get up in the morning and get to school on time. According to his mother, Sam also enjoys attending all sporting events at the high school. He particularly likes basketball. They would like Sam to continue to develop his academic skills and especially his communication abilities. Sam and his parents are interested in exploring options outside of the high school setting, including employment and community college based programming for his last years of school before he exits at age 21.

Sam and his family would like him to live in an apartment with appropriate supports after he graduates from high school. They would like to see him become more independent in his daily care skills and choose healthy foods for snacks and breakfast. His mom would also like to see him participate in community-based supported employment experiences that could lead to part-time paid employment.

Sam shows an interest in a variety of academic tasks. He seems to enjoy learning and expresses an interest in discovering more about certain words and topics. He shows a great deal of interest in science related topics and drawing. He enjoys drawing pictures of cartoon characters, then telling the story to staff.

Sam’s difficulties in acquiring, retaining and applying academic and adaptive skills have consistently impacted his learning in core content classes, interaction in social settings with peers and independence in the home and community, according to assessments and parent/teacher reports.

Sam requires specially designed instruction to support his access to and progress in core content areas aligned to the alternate instructional framework and to support direct instruction for independent and functional learning activities.