A Comprehensive Accommodations Model in the Catholic School Inclusive Context

While Catholic schools have a mission of inclusivity, they are often challenged to support students who may have disabilities. A significant cause of their challenge is lacking a special education infrastructure. Classroom accommodations are a primary form of supporting students with disabilities, and others, who struggle in the classroom. Catholic high school educators collaborated with special education researchers in a research project involving collaborative action research to identify and validate an accommodations model specific to the Catholic secondary school context. The model includes three phases—Preparation, Provision, and Evaluation—as well as features such as redundant services, a dedicated learning specialist, and collaboration. Implications for the Catholic mission and the applicability of the model to other Catholic schools are discussed.