District Curriculum Accommodations Plan (DCAP)
The District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP) is a resource developed by the district to provide guidance and assistance for building principals and School Councils to ensure that all efforts are made to meet the diverse needs of students within the regular educational setting.
Districts are required by Massachusetts General Law to maintain and continually review District Curriculum Accommodation Plans (DCAP) and to use them at the local school level to inform improvement planning and budget development (MGL Ch. 71§38 Q-½ & MGL Ch. 71 § 59c). The Dedham Public Schools DCAP was developed through the Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment and in collaboration with a broad group of stakeholders from across the district.
It’s primary purposes are:
- To establish a clear and shared understanding of the systems and structures that the district employs to ensure all students have equitable access to learning opportunities throughout their time in the Dedham Public Schools
- To establish a clear and shared understanding of what all educators in the Dedham Public Schools are expected to know about be able to do to support ALL learners (Lammi, Et.al., 2017).
The Dedham Public Schools’ DCAP is organized by grade span as the programs, practices and support mechanisms are tailored to the specific needs of students within those grade spans.
Each section is further organized into Curriculum and Instructional Practices, Accommodations, Assessment and Monitoring, Intervention Processes and Programs, and Communication.
- Curriculum and Instructional Practices provides an overview at each level of the programs that are used in all regular education settings and the instructional practices that teachers employ to ensure students are able to access learning.
- The Accommodations section provides an overview at each level of the ways in which teachers and other professionals assist students in accessing the curriculum effectively.
- The Assessment and Monitoring portion of each section details the measures that teachers and other professionals use to gauge student learning and progress towards established learning outcomes.
- The section covering Intervention Processes and Programs provides an overview of the mechanisms that the district employs to identify students who may need additional support in mastering learning outcomes or extension of previously mastered learning outcomes.
- Finally the Communication section at each level provides an overview of how the district involves parents and families in the educational process and the mechanisms that it uses to share information with the community.