District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP)
The District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP) emphasizes the way in which the capacity of general education can be maximized to ensure that the students receive the appropriate education. The plan is intended to guide principals and teachers in ensuring that all possible efforts have been made to meet student needs in general education classrooms and to support teachers in analyzing and accommodating the wide range of student learning styles and needs that exist in any school.
To help meet the needs of diverse learners in the general education environment, the NMRSD Curriculum Accommodation Plan provides for the following:
- A clear definition of best practices in the general education classroom for elementary, middle and high school classrooms
- A clear list of resources that are available to all students when their needs call for them
- A specific process for determining the needs of students that is consistent across elementary, middle, and high school levels
- The use of standardized and local, formative and benchmark data as one measure of student learning and indicator of student needs
- Multiple instructional support strategies for each level
Barriers that contribute to learning difficulties are not always clearly related to education. School districts must consider addressing barriers related to coming to school ready to learn and conditions supportive of learning in an ongoing way.