New Statewide Guide Advances Arts Education Access for Students with Disabilities in New Jersey

All In for Inclusive Education, Arts Ed NJ, and the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association released the Inclusion Guide for Arts Education, a new statewide resource designed to help ensure that students with disabilities are fully included in arts education. The guide grew out of conversations with families and educators across New Jersey who shared stories of students with IEPs being pulled from arts classes to receive services, interventions, or additional academic support. They also described the profound impact that music, visual art, theatre, dance, and other arts experiences had on their children's learning, confidence, communication, belonging, and success in school.

Those experiences raised an important question: How can schools meet the individual needs of students with disabilities without unintentionally limiting their access to arts education?

New Jersey requires arts education for all students, and federal and state special education policies establish students with disabilities' right to access the general education curriculum. Yet translating those requirements into daily decisions about scheduling, services, accommodations, instruction, and inclusion can be complex.

The Inclusion Guide for Arts Education addresses that challenge directly. Built around asset-based systems and structures, illustrative examples, and key guiding questions, the guide offers a broad framework that districts of any size or context can adapt for coordinated, purposeful efforts centered on inclusivity, student well-being, and shared responsibility for all students.

"This guide was born from listening to the field. We heard from families whose students with IEPs were missing out on arts education, and from others whose children were thriving when fully included. That contrast stayed with us,' said Wendy Liscow, Executive Director of Arts Ed NJ. 'We created this guide to help ensure that every family, educator, and school leader has the information and support needed to make arts access possible for all students. We are grateful to partner with All In for Inclusive Education and NJPSA, and to the extraordinary group of writers who brought deep expertise in special education, school leadership, families, and arts education to this work."

The partner organizations see the Inclusion Guide for Arts Education as both a resource and a starting point for deeper conversations among families, educators, school leaders, arts educators, special education professionals, and other partners who make decisions that affect students. The goal is simple: a student's disability or need for services should not become a barrier to participating in arts education. The Inclusion Guide for Arts Education is available now, click here.

Families, educators, school leaders, and other partners are invited to take the next step by joining a free learning session on November 12th offered from 3:00–4:00 p.m. and again from 5:30–6:30 p.m. Participants will explore the guide, learn more about why inclusive arts education matters, and consider how they can use the resource to strengthen access and inclusion in their own schools and communities. The sessions are the first in a series designed to move the guide from resource to action. Registration and session details are available at the link below.

Registration and Session Details