The Functional Academics Program is specifically designed to meet the needs of students with a variety of developmental disabilities. The skills targeted throughout the Assessment and Curriculum have been chosen for the explicit purpose of empowering students to reach their greatest level of independence, access their communities, and live fulfilled lives as contributing, responsible, and equal members of society.

The Assessment is designed to assist teachers to do two things:

1. Determine students’ skill levels in several functional academic areas.

2. Assemble functional academic programs to address student deficits.

The results of the Assessment provide teachers with a road map to the specific IEP goals and address and provide clear indicators of each student’s Present Level of Performance. The Assessment does not provide a standardized score. Instead, each skill domain is evaluated individually to determine the level at which the student is performing and then to identify the next steps in the sequence to teach. After the Assessment is completed, teachers will assign the suggested programs or use the flow charts (provided with each content area) to identify the corresponding Curriculum lesson(s) to teach.