The paper points out the inappropriateness of the typical bottom-up or norm-referenced curricula offered to severely handicapped adolescents and young adults. As an alternative, it is proposed that curricula for this population teach chronological-age-appropriate functional skills in natural environments. Functional skills, natural environments, and chronological-age-appropriate skills are defined in this context. A six-phase curriculum-development strategy is constructed based on these concepts. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this strategy for traditional curricular content and service delivery for severely handicapped adolescent and young adult students.

A brief historical review of educational service delivery models for severely handicapped students is provided, six learning and performance characteristics and some of their educational implications are dis cussed, and four instructional location strategies and some of the pros and cons of each are also addressed.The thesis offered is that placement of severely hand icapped students in chronological age appropriate regular schools that are both close to their homes and in accordance with the natural proportion is necessary but not sufficient to prepare for acceptable function ing in vocational, domestic, recreation/leisure, and general community environments upon graduation at age 21. Educators and related service personnel must provide direct, individualized, longitudinal, com prehensive, and systematic instruction in a wide variety of heterogeneous nonschool environments.Indeed, decisions related to selection of nonschool instructional environments are considered so important that they should take precedence over those related to selection of skills, materials, and measurement systems.When educational services available to severely handicapped 2 students are examined, at least six overlapping phases can be identified.

The amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) in 2004 reiterate the significance of producing real postsecondary education, employment, and independent living outcomes. However, current employment data continue to show widespread unemployment and very limited access to inclusive community environments and services for adults with severe intellectual disabilities. On the contrary, data from the Transition Service Integration Model (N. J. Certo et al., 2003) demonstrate that these recalcitrant problems could be attenuated if two changes are implemented: The transition from school to adulthood components of IDEIA be strengthened to explicitly authorize school districts to subcontract with appropriate private agencies at the point of transition to produce direct-hire, individualized employment and adult living outcomes and that the federal government amend the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act to provide an entitlement to long-term support, creating a service system which parallels the functions of IDEIA after school exit.

During the post-World War II baby boom, increasing numbers of children with significant disabilities survived the birth process and lived longer than their predecessors. Many viewed them as less valuable than others and incapable of developing to more than the level of an infant without disabilities (Kliewer & Drake, 1998). Predictably, they were excluded or rejected from public schools and private alternatives emerged and proliferated. Most who provided direct services in these segregated private settings were untrained, relatively low paid, not college educated, or licensed. Subsequently, some legislatures established tax supported settings for these excluded and rejected children. Two additional segregated service models emerged: tax supported government operated programs and private services supported by public school tax dollars. In these settings, it was not unusual for one teacher and five