This chapter was developed to provide resources for job training, recreational and social skills opportunities that may be more appropriate for some ABE students.
Since many disabilities are hidden, it is difficult to determine if a student has a disability or not, particularly an Intellectual Developmental Disorder. If your student is not progressing and has hit a low level plateau in all subject areas, (meaning they are not showing progress in any subject after lengthy instruction), they may have an Intellectual Developmental Disorder. Go to the Adult Intervention Chapter (a four step strategy/screening process) for more information about determining the root of learning challenges.
PANDA has also developed a supplemental registration form to assist programs to ask sometimes difficult questions at intake. This form has questions to help programs determine if ABE is an appropriate placement for potential students. Please click here to email PANDA if you would like a copy of our Supplemental Registration form.
Overview and History
Since 1975, Congress has enacted the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which over time has grown to include all students with disabilities and their right to an appropriate and outcome-driven education. IDEA aims to benefit students from infants under Early Childhood Education, through age twenty-one, in transition programs.
Individuals with intellectual developmental disorders have been called many different terms throughout history such as intellectual disability, developmentally delayed, or developmental cognitive disabled.
IDEA defines an intellectual developmental disorder as, “significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.”
