The Trust Framework
The Trust Framework is the relational foundation embedded in every book, activity, and plan in the Inclusive Learning Library. It is free and open — because the ideas that make inclusion work should belong to everyone.
Developed by Rebecca Cann, M.A., CCC-SLP, the Trust Framework emerged from years of school-based clinical practice, AAC work, and the recognition that inclusion fails not because educators lack commitment — but because the systems around them make collaboration invisible, indirect service time uncountable, and shared language rare.
The Framework does not ask schools to do new work. It names the work that is already happening and gives teams a shared structure to make it visible, documented, and sustainable.
Every text in the Library is selected, presented, and supported so every learner can enter the story on their own terms. Universal Access is not about simplification — it is about multiple means of entry.
A book that only some students can access is not a shared object. The power of the Library model comes from the fact that the same story anchors every adult's work. When the text is universally accessible, the collaboration becomes possible.
Universal Access draws on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles: multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. In practice, this means every book in the Library ships with AAC overlays, sensory-adapted read-aloud guides, visual supports, and family discussion guides.
The teacher leads the read. Specialists weave their goals into the same book. One plan, many lenses. Co-Constructed Plans is the principle that says: the general education teacher does not hand off to specialists — they invite them in.
In most schools today, lesson plans and IEP goals live in separate systems, written by separate people, rarely seen by each other. The result is pull-out service that fragments the student's day, indirect service time that goes unlogged, and teachers who feel unsupported and specialists who feel unwelcome.
Co-Constructed Plans makes the lesson the shared object. The teacher creates the reading plan. The SLP layers in a language goal. The OT attaches a fine-motor activity. The BCBA adds a joint-attention data sheet. All of it lives in one place, visible to everyone, tied to the same story.
Replies, attachments, and shared activities are time-stamped and tied to learners. Consultation finally counts. This is the pillar that transforms the Library from a planning tool into a documentation system.
Indirect service time — the co-planning, the consultation emails, the materials adaptation, the professional development conversations — is real work. It is often federally required, contractually mandated, and directly tied to student outcomes. But it has never had a home. It happens in hallways, in email threads, in conversations that leave no trace.
Visible Collaboration means that when a specialist replies to a lesson plan, that reply is time-stamped, tied to the students it supports, and automatically logged as indirect service time. No extra documentation step. No separate system. The collaboration is the documentation.
Story is the bridge. Every book, activity, and plan in the Library begins from a single premise: this student belongs here. Belonging First is not a sentiment — it is a design constraint.
It means we select books in which students with disabilities are present, complex, and central — not peripheral, not pitied, not inspirational. It means activities are designed for the inclusive classroom, not adapted down from a pull-out model. It means the default is togetherness.
Research consistently shows that belonging — the felt sense that one is a valued member of the learning community — is among the strongest predictors of academic engagement, social-emotional development, and long-term outcomes for students with disabilities. Belonging First asks every tool in the Library to answer one question before anything else: does this help this student feel like they belong here?
A living framework
The Trust Framework is not finished. It grows with the districts, teachers, and specialists who use it. If you are doing this work and have something to add, we want to hear from you.
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