Alberta has a long and proud history of meeting the educational needs of students with disabilities and diverse needs. The province serves many thousand students with behavioural, communicational and intellectual needs; as well as students with mental health challenges, learning or physical disabilities and students who are gifted and talented. Over the years, the system has been focused on finding the best ways to support students with special learning needs, and has also been committed to continuous improvement and self-examination to determine where Alberta Education's strengths and areas for improvement lie. In the spirit of continuous improvement, the "Setting the Direction" initiative grew out of a severe disabilities funding profile review in the Fall of 2007, which uncovered province-wide inconsistencies in the ways that students with disabilities are coded, assessed, and provided the required supports and services; the way policy is being interpreted and the ways in which students' administrative files are managed. That work provided an important snapshot of some of the obstacles to effective program management and programming for students with disabilities. The Steering Committee recognizes that cultural, structural, policy and procedural change takes time. The next steps are that the Minister of Education will provide a formal government response to the recommendations in this framework. The Committee looks forward to the Minister's feedback as to which recommendations are accepted, and enthusiastically anticipates implementation of changes by September 2010. The Steering Committee remains committed to being appropriately engaged during Phase 4 stage of this initiative - the supporting change phase. One appendix is included: (1) Framework Summary Chart.