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.

Special Education Curriculum, Whole-Child Focused with Data-Driven Progress Monitoring Tools

The entire program is offered in Print AND Online with our new cloud-based data collection and reporting system FLIGHT (Functional Learning Insights Guiding & Helping Teachers). We are able to accommodate all teachers – those who have embraced the digital age and those who prefer pen and paper.

Explore the Program!

The Functional Academics Assessment is simple to administer and links directly to the Curriculum for a comprehensive education roadmap. To get started, please use the arrow found to the right of the book below to flip through an overview of the Program and see how it works.

A World of Opportunity for Students with Disabilities

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Try an Activity with Your Students!

With The Functional Academics Program and a subscription to FLIGHT educators enjoy access to hundreds of enhanced resources including all new activities and materials added over time.

The authors, being teachers themselves, do not believe in nickel and diming and therefore have opted to make all major enhancements available to all subscribers. This includes access to hundreds of flashcard templates and over 1000 independent activities and growing.

New sample lessons added weekly from June 3rd – Sept. 2nd

Check back for the latest!

As teachers first, the authors are committed to ensuring the successful implementation of The Functional Academics Program and offer several training options including webinars, extensive self-paced training modules, in-person trainings, and Train-the-Trainer where participants become implementation trainers providing district sustainability and increased program fidelity.

All of our trainers are current or past educators or administrators who have used the Program in their own classrooms/districts and have trained others across the country to implement it. The trainers’ extensive experience teaching students with moderate to severe disabilities makes them an invaluable resource for districts new to the Program. Staff are always on hand to meet with teachers, answer questions, and brainstorm next steps.

The Functional Academics Program is a comprehensive scope and sequence roadmap that enables students with moderate to severe disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth both academically and personally, while creating accountability with data-driven, evidence-based results. The Functional Academics Program for special education enables teachers to individualize instruction centered on each child’s present level of performance in one-to-one or small group settings.   

Yes! Functional Academics by SDES is the only student-focused Program that uniquely addresses State Standards. In this truly revolutionary new edition, The Functional Academics Program by SDES includes four new content areas—Functional Science, Functional Social Studies, Concepts, and Executive Functioning—doubling the number of lessons overall and uniquely meeting state standards for special education.

Yes, our curriculum is considered standards-based because it aligns with extended state academic standards. However, we prefer to describe it as standards-aligned—a more accurate reflection of our approach. Rather than rigidly building every lesson from a checklist of standards, we started by identifying the real-world skills and concepts students with moderate to severe disabilities need most. We then aligned each lesson to relevant standards across multiple states to ensure instructional rigor, compliance, and meaningful outcomes. This approach ensures that every lesson is both educationally sound and functionally relevant—promoting independence, life readiness, and access to the general curriculum in a way that truly benefits our students.

FLIGHT (Functional Learning Insights Guiding & Helping Teachers) is the only online data-collection system that links directly to the comprehensive Curriculum, to elevate ongoing progress monitoring and real-time reporting. FLIGHT makes EdTech accessible for special education enabling special education teams to easily and consistently evaluate progress and produce data-driven IEP reports for parents and school administrators, giving the IEP team the necessary tools to adjust programs as needed to increase student success.

Yes! FLIGHT, our Functional Academics data collection platform, is iKeepSafe certified. That means it has been independently reviewed and awarded the iKeepSafe FERPA and COPPA Privacy Badge—a nationally recognized certification that confirms our software meets strict standards for student data privacy, security, and legal compliance.

In short, we protect student data and follow the laws. This includes proper handling of personal information under:

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)
COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)

School districts across the U.S. use iKeepSafe certification as a trusted benchmark to ensure an educational platform is safe and compliant for use with students.

Yes! We offer a comprehensive suite of transition planning resources through our My Keys to the Future program. Developed by Barbara Beck, this student-centered curriculum empowers students to explore who they are, set meaningful goals, and advocate for themselves. It features interactive workbooks, social stories, videos, and audio prompts designed to build communication, understanding, and confidence as students prepare for adulthood.

Through their collaboration, Barbara Beck and Functional Academics author Suzanne Fitzgerald have come together to offer the most holistic approach to student support—from early education through the transition to adult life.

While each program is designed to stand on its own, when used together, they give educators, families, and students the tools to create personalized, effective transition plans that foster independence, self-determination, and long-term success.

My Keys to the Future is a comprehensive, structured, student-centered approach to transition. Grounded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the program utilizes a multi-media approach with interactive workbooks, social stories, videos, and audio prompts to enhance student expressive communication and understanding. This unique combination of tools guides students through essential life skills and self-discovery. My Keys to the Future equips students with the self-advocacy skills, knowledge, and confidence to transition as independently as possible into adulthood. 

Yes! The Functional Academics programs are all designed to be highly customizable based on students’ present levels of performance and IEP goals.

Absolutely! We offer white glove teacher support. The incredible training team—composed of 100% Special Educators—works hand-in-hand with the entire teaching team to implement the Program with complete fidelity. Our professional development resources like implementation tools, recorded and live webinars, and ongoing support are designed to provide additional training opportunities for educators and their teams.

Learn more here.

Getting started is easy and we’d love to help guide you on! Simply reach out to us by booking a demo, send us an email to ask any questions you have, or give us a call at 425.820.5855 for more information.

FLIGHT: We offer a live demo with the creator of The Functional Academics Program – Suzanne Fitzgerald – to showcase FLIGHT’s incredible online data and real-time reporting platform. You can book your demo directly through our website to explore how it can benefit your learning team.

Special Education Curriculum, Whole-Child Focused with Data-Driven Progress Monitoring Tools

Explore the Program!

A World of Opportunity for Students with Disabilities

Extras

Not Onboard with Functional Academics Yet?

Learn more about The Functional Academics Program

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Functional Academics by Specially Designed Education Services

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