AT Helps Schools Too (After)

My initial thoughts about assistive technology had focused on assisting people with their disabilities, rather than considering assistive technology as assisting school districts with providing appropriate public education. As I was reading the articles about assistive technology what stood out to me was that assistive technology is similar to any educational tool used to provide access to the standard curriculum and it faces similar challenges to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regarding assessment, implementation, staff training and experience, and the need for additional funding. One question I have is what is the process for deciding what types of assistive technology are integrated within school districts considering the vast differences in resources among school districts; for example how is the decision made to utilize an inexpensive communication board rather than other high-tech costly technology?