Inclusive Safety in STEM Classrooms: A Safer Ed Podcast

This companion article, published by edCircuit in September 2025 for the first of two Safer Ed Podcast episodes, explains how accommodations and modifications in a student’s IEP support safe participation in science and STEM. A new section below adds national enrollment data, practical lab adjustments from published teacher guidance, and questions for school leaders.

Safer EdInclusive Safety in STEM ClassroomsSeptember 15, 2025 · 5 min 5 sPlay episode: Inclusive Safety in STEM Classrooms (5 minutes 5 seconds)0:00-5:05Follow on SpotifyApple

When we picture science safety, we often imagine goggles and gloves, but the real foundation of safety starts with something less visible: making sure every student is welcomed, supported, and able to learn.

In the latest Safer Ed podcast, Inclusive Safety in STEM Classrooms (Part 1), we explore how educators can design learning environments that support students with additional needs. The conversation makes clear that safety and inclusion are not competing priorities—they work hand in hand to create better outcomes for all learners.

Meeting Students Where They Are

“Additional needs” is a broad category that spans physical disabilities, cognitive differences, social-emotional needs, and even temporary conditions like recovery from injury. No two students are alike, which means a single safety checklist can’t capture every situation. Instead, effective safety planning requires flexibility, communication, and teamwork.

One of the most powerful tools available to educators is the Individualized Education Plan (IEP). More than a document, an IEP represents a collaboration between families, teachers, specialists, and administrators to ensure that each student has the supports they need to thrive. Importantly, IEPs may include both accommodations and modifications—two approaches that help create safer, more inclusive classrooms.

• Accommodations adjust the pathway to learning while keeping the goals the same. For example, using assistive technology or adapting lab workspaces for accessibility.

• Modifications adjust the learning goals themselves to match the student’s needs, such as scaling down a complex STEM project to focus on core principles.

The Power of Inclusive STEM

STEM is inherently flexible. Hands-on projects can be scaled up or down to meet different learners where they are, without sacrificing educational value. With thoughtful planning, teachers can ensure that every student participates in meaningful work that builds confidence.

The podcast also challenges outdated assumptions that students with additional needs “cannot” or “should not” participate in Safer STEM. In fact, when made accessible, STEM activities can be some of the most engaging and rewarding experiences in a student’s academic journey.

Safety and Inclusion Go Hand in Hand

The first layer of lab safety is access. Students who are left on the sidelines are not only excluded from learning—they are also at greater risk of unsafe behaviors. When inclusion is prioritized, students are engaged, supported, and better able to share responsibility for classroom safety.

As Safer Ed emphasizes, creating an environment where success looks different for each student—but is equally valued—is the essence of both inclusion and safety.

What’s Next

This episode is the first in a two-part series. Part 2 will take a deeper look at universal design and hazard analysis, exploring how educators can proactively embed safety into every STEM environment.

Key Takeaways

• Safety in STEM starts with access—students must be included before they can be protected.

• IEPs are collaborative tools that balance learning objectives with safety needs.

• Accommodations adjust the pathway; modifications adjust the destination.

• STEM’s flexibility makes it ideal for scaling projects to meet diverse needs.

• Inclusion is not just a teaching strategy—it is a safety practice.

Listen Now

You can listen to Inclusive Safety in STEM Classrooms (Part 1) on the Safer Ed podcast at edcircuit.com or on your favorite podcast platform.

Keep Learning

Want to go deeper? Take the free online module from Science Safety: Students with Additional Needs: An Introduction – this introductory training explores strategies, tools, and practices for supporting students with additional needs in safe and effective science classrooms.

Inclusive science lab safety: planning for the students who are actually in the room

Inclusive science lab safety means planning a lab so that every student can take part in it and can do so without added risk. The episode summarized above makes the point that access comes before protection, and that an Individualized Education Program (IEP) is one of the tools that makes access possible. This section adds the size of the student group involved, what published teacher guidance says about adjusting labs, and the decisions that fall to school leaders.

How many students are involved

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 7.5 million students ages 3 to 21 received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the 2022–23 school year, which is 15 percent of public school students. The largest categories were specific learning disabilities (32 percent of those served), speech or language impairments (19 percent), other health impairments (15 percent) and autism (13 percent). In practical terms, a science teacher with five sections of 25 students is likely to have several students with IEPs, and the needs behind them differ from one another: a student with a learning disability may need directions presented in another format, while a student with a health impairment may need a different pace or workstation.

These figures, from an NCES indicator last updated in May 2024, count students served under one law. Students with temporary injuries, or with needs that have not been formally identified, are not in them, so the number of students who need an adjustment on a given lab day is often larger.

Accommodations and modifications in a lab

The episode companion above separates accommodations from modifications. A January 2020 column in NSTA’s Science Scope by Kaitlyn McGlynn and Janey Kelly, “Modifying Labs for Students with Special Needs,” draws the same line. Accommodations change the environment, the equipment or the way a student completes the lab while the expectations stay the same. Modifications change what the student is expected to complete.

The column lists specific accommodations that a teacher can make without redesigning the course:

• Keep aisles wide.
• Use plastic in place of glass where the activity allows it.
• Add nonslip mats and consider adjustable-height work areas.
• Give each student a defined role in the group.
• Present procedures in more than one format, such as written steps with photos plus a demonstration.
• Offer an alternate workspace, such as the hallway, to students who are stressed by noise or easily distracted.

The column is practitioner guidance rather than a controlled study, so it shows what teachers have found workable and does not measure how much each step lowers injury risk. Still, several of its suggestions, such as wider aisles and plastic in place of glass, also reduce hazards for every student in the room.

Where a modification changes the safety review

A modification deserves a separate look because it can change the hazards. If a lab is shortened to its essentials, the remaining steps may be safer, but if a student does a different task in place of the original one, that task needs its own check of materials, heat sources and supervision. A reasonable habit, offered here as a suggestion, is to review the IEP before the lab, talk with the special educator about the student’s supports, and then run through the planned steps once with that student in mind.

Questions for school leaders

• Do science teachers receive IEP information in time to plan labs, and do they know who to ask when a plan is unclear?
• Is a special educator or instructional assistant scheduled for lab days when the plan calls for one?
• Are class sizes, aisle widths and storage compatible with the adjustments the plans require?

The edCircuit special education guide and the STEM education guide cover the wider context, and the lab safety guide covers the lab practices that these adjustments sit inside.

What comes next

As the episode above notes, safety in STEM begins with access. The second episode moves from individual adjustments to designing the room for everyone from the start, and it is covered in the edCircuit companion article Inclusive Classrooms with Universal Design.

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