Children with Disabilities in the Regular Classroom

Abstract

Amovement that is sweeping the nation poses dramatic challenges and opportunities for junior highs, middle schools, and high schools. This movement advocates that all children, regardless of their educational needs, should be educated in the same instructional setting. This means that handicapped students, even those formerly considered to be too severely handicapped for all but the most segregated settings, should be educated alongside their nonhandicapped peers. But, wait a minute, you say, that sounds like mainstreaming. Haven't we been doing that for years? Although the mainstreaming concept is certainly a forerunner, the present concept goes far beyond our old perceptions and thinking. Known by such catch phrases as Regular Education Initiative, Schools Are For Everyone (SAFE), Inclusive Schools, and Supported Integration, this movement holds that it is possible, desirable, even mandatory, that all students spend the majority of their school day in the same classroom with children their own age. According to this philosophy, children should not be sent out of their home-attendance area simply because they have a handicap. Rather, they should attend the school they would attend if they were not handicapped. More than that, within the school itself, this movement calls for instructing handicapped and nonhandicapped students side-by-side. What we have known as special education then becomes not a place but a support and resource for classroom teachers to help them meet the needs of all students. This system of education has some very real benefits. By being educated with their nonhandicapped peers, students with handicaps are provided with age-appropriate models for social, communication, and self-help skills. By remaining in their local, or home, school, they attend classes with other children from the neighborhood and are better able to participate in school events and activities. Some very real