Access courses are intended only for students with a significant cognitive disability. Access courses are designed to provide tiered access to the general curriculum through three levels of access points (Participatory, Supported, and Independent), which reflect increasing levels of complexity and depth of knowledge aligned with grade-level expectations. The access points included in access courses are intentionally designed to foster high expectations for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

The study of mathematics provides the means to organize, understand, and predict life’s events in quantifiable terms. Organizing life using numbers allows us to keep accurate records of objects and events, such as quantity, sequence, time, and money. Using numbers to understand the relationship between relative quantities or characteristics allows us to accurately problem solve and predict future outcomes of quantifiable events as conditions change. Many of life’s typical activities require competency in using numbers, operations, and algebraic thinking (e.g., counting, measuring, comparison shopping), geometric principles (e.g., shapes, area, volume), and data analysis (e.g., organizing information to suggest conclusions). Some students with significant cognitive disabilities will access and use traditional mathematical symbols and abstractions, while others may apply numeric principles using concrete materials in real-life activities. In any case, mathematics is one of the most useful skill sets and essential for students with significant cognitive disabilities. It provides a means to organize life and solve problems involving quantity and patterns, making life more orderly and predictable.

The purpose of this course is to develop the algebraic concepts and processes that can be used to analyze and solve a variety of routine and non-routine real-world and mathematical problems. The content should include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Content-related vocabulary
• Operations using real numbers in real-world problems
• Patterns, relations, and functions, including tables, sequences, and graphs
• Graphs to summarize data and predict outcomes
• Ratios
• Variables and their impact on outcomes
• Varied solution strategies to solve real-world problems