Mainstreaming Research Paper

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Recommended: Autistic children in public schools

Mainstreaming vs. Inclusion Classes
There has been a debate for years on whether autistic students should be in all mainstream, mixed, or all inclusion classes. In this report, the reader will learn the benefits of mainstream classes, how they started, how inclusion classes started, what made the people separate Autistic students, and how parents feel about which option is better.
Mainstream
How did it start? Mainstreaming classes are regular classrooms with special needs students in the class with them. Mainstream schools and classes are chances for students with a special need to be with other children their age with no aid or special needs. These schools give children with Autism a feeling of what it is like not to have a special need. …show more content…

Mainstream classes started in the 1980s, and gave Autistic children a chance to be in a class with a less restricted setting because of the EHA (Education for All Handicapped Children Act), later renamed to IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act); this organization started the entire wave and thought of autistic children being in a classroom with non special education students. The IDEA paved the way for mainstream classrooms, but many changed the rule of what an Autistic student would learn. At first, the Autistic would learn almost nothing compared to a nondisabled student, but in 1997 IDEA modified the rules for the students. The IDEA strengthened their curriculum so that the students would actually learn while in mainstream classes.
What are the cons of mainstream? Mainstream classrooms have many benefits, but with every benefit, there's a drawback. Some of the cons of a mainstream class are autistic students may have a difficult time keeping up with a normal class curriculum. If the students are having a hard time with the criteria they could become bored or very disruptive according to myautism.org. The student also could not get little to no individual time with the teacher due to how large the class would grow with special need students added to

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