Elementary and middle school classwork is given to high school students because “they can’t do high school-level work.”At first, I thought compassion was at the core. Ask yourself, “How can we give this student access?” Use scaffolded tools like sentence frames, visual organizers and peer partners. All students work on essential content, just at different levels of independence or complexity and ways to show learning. Students with disabilities don’t want kindness; they want a classroom that feels worth fighting for. As a system, we cannot continue to excuse under-preparation with over-empathy because students with disabilities don’t need our pity; they need our belief.