Abstract
Access to general education settings for students with disabilities varies greatly among and within states across the United States and worldwide. The variability in placement and lack of access to general education for students with disabilities, particularly students with extensive support needs, are reasons to identify factors associated with placement and then address the role of current policy. Explored in this study were the placement of students with extensive support needs in 938 school districts across the State of California in the United States and therelationship between placement and economic and demographic factors. Results suggest alarmingly low access to general education classrooms for students with extensive support needs, significant variability in placement, and relationships between placement and factors, such as total enrollment, race, and expenditure.
Highlights
A continued focus on access to placement in regular classes for students with disabilities (SWD) is apparent across the United States and many other countries (Ainscow & Cesár, 2006; Drudy & Kinsella, 2009)
Given that a number of international organizations and initatives cite the importance of placement and access for SWD (United Nations, 2006; United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, 2015), research into factors associated with placement may be applied to future policy and practice that continue to push for increased access for all SWD, those students with extensive support needs (ESN) who often have the least access (U.S Department of Education, 2017)
We examined the outcome variables, which included the percentage of SWD in general education at 80% or more of the day and the percentage of SWD in general education less than 40% of the school day and in a separate school or setting
Summary
A continued focus on access to placement in regular classes for students with disabilities (SWD) is apparent across the United States and many other countries (Ainscow & Cesár, 2006; Drudy & Kinsella, 2009). Despite the increasing attention on placement in regular classes for SWD, many SWD, those with extensive support needs (ESN; e.g., intellectual disability, autism, and multiple disabilities), continue to be educated away from their peers without disabilities (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, 2010; Morningstar, Kurth, & Kozleski, 2014). There is significant variability in placement in, or access to, general education for SWD across various countries (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, 2010), across states in the United States (Kurth, 2015; Kurth, Morningstar, & Kozleski, 2014), and across districts within states (Cosier, White, & Wang, 2018). The purpose of this study was to investigate the variability in placement in regular classes and separate settings across districts in California, and factors related to the variability of educational environments for SWD, with a focus on students with ESNs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: lnternational Electronic Journal of Elementary Education
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
