Inclusion classrooms are rewarding to all children. Numerous school systems today implementing inclusion classrooms, or include students with disabilities into the general education classroom, because of the numerous benefits associated with inclusion. Even though inclusion may not be for all students with disabilities, there are countless benefits of inclusion to consider. In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed to guarantee that children with disabilities be given the opportunity to receive a public education ("A Brief History of the Disability Rights Movement", n.d.,). In 1990, 1997, and 2004, reauthorizations of this Act were held, and the law came to be known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA mandates that not only should individuals with disabilities be offered a public education, they also have the right to learn in the least restricted environment. Therefore students with disabilities, both in public and in private schools, are to be educated to the maximum extent possible, and in classrooms together with students with no disabilities. Children with disabilities are most importantly children. Inclusion supplies opportunities for socializing and for friendships to grow. It offers a feeling of belonging and the appropriate encouragement of social, behavioral, and academic skills (Karagiannis, Stainback, and Stainback 28). Including children with disabilities in general education classes generates acceptance of diversity. It teaches children how to connect with others of different capabilities. Inclusion continues to be a debatable idea in education as it pertains to educational and social values, as well as to the sense of individual worth. There are supporters on ... ... middle of paper ... ...nted at the Annual Convention of the America Association of School Administrators, Dallas, Texas. Gething, L., LaCour, J., & Wheeler, B. (1994). Attitudes of nursing home administrators and nurses towards people withdisabilities. Journal of Rehabilitation, 60(4), 66-70. Milsom, A. (2006). Creating Positive School Experiences for Students with Disabilities. Professional School Counseling Journal , October 2006, 10(1), 66-72. Stainback, Susan B, and William C. Stainback. Inclusion: A Guide for Educators. Baltimore: P.H. Brookes Pub. Co, 1996. Print. "Inclusion and students with behavior disorders." BehaviorAdvisor.com Dr. Mac's Amazing Classroom Behavior Management Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 June 2014. A Brief History of the Disability Rights Movement. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/fall_2005/fall_2005_lesson5_history.html
This means that children with all different types of a disability are accessible to public education and learning through professional educators and through their peers. Another important legislation that has been established in 1975 is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that includes all ages of children and their rights to learn. Both of these movements helped shape what special education is today and assisted in bringing inclusion into the classroom. They both made it possible for students with disabilities to be integrated into general education classrooms, while getting the assistance they need as well. These acts are what made it possible into what my field of study is and I intend to push the boundaries of getting my future students in these general education classrooms and making them feel apart of something
Legally, inclusion is defined by Public Law 94-142 from 1975. This law, known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA, does not contain the term “inclusion”, however, it describes the term “Least Restrictive Environment” which means that a handicapped child must be placed in a classroom that can meet their needs but is as close to a regular classroom as possible (Villa p. 4). IDEA states that: " “to the maximum extent appropriate, handicapped children, including those children in public and private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not handicapped, and that special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of handicapped children from regular educational environments occurs only when the nature or severity of the handicap is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. P.L. 94-142, Section 1412 (Villa p. 5).... ...
Educators can have strong feelings on the subject because having special needs students in a regular classroom can have a large impact on the classroom community. Those who believe in inclusive classrooms realize that, to be successful, it requires allot of classroom management and differentiated instruction, but feel the benefits are worth the work involved. Those who do not believe in inclusion feel that it leads to “l...
Peterson, J. Michael and Hittie, Marie Michael. Inclusive Teaching : Creating Effective Schools for All Learners. Pearson Publishing. (2003)
What is inclusion? Inclusion learning is the idea that regardless of a child’s disability they are considered access to a regular education setting that will provide the learning aides needed for that child to learn successfully. The debate of inclusion learning has been on the table for many years. According to the U.S. Department of Education's report to congress in the 2006 school year there were 701,949 children between the ages of three and five years old being served for special needs under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)(17). The IDEA was introduced in 1997 as an amendment to the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This amendment was to “to ensure free and appropriate education for children of all learning and physical disabilities in the least restricted environment” (Individuals with DisabilitiesEducation Act Amendments of 1997). One of the purposes of the IDEA law was “...
As a student who has a learning disability, the idea of inclusion in the classroom is very important to me. My learning disability may not be noticeable to everyone but there were still times in school that I needed my teachers to make accommodations ...
Mungai, A., & Kogan, E., (2005). Pathway to inclusion. Voices from the field. United States of America: University Press of America.
Approximately 37 million children between the ages of 6 to 14 years of age live in the United States of American. Approximately 1.4 million will have significant disabilities and 3 million will have mild to moderate disability (Kit, 2015). Inclusion is belonging. It is not a program or a club, it is not a favor or a trial period, and it is not a place. It is a right, it is accepting differences and allowing children with disabilities to be themselves. Inclusion offers opportunities as well as rewards to children that are living with disabilities and children that are not living with disabilities. It is belonging, which is being part of a program, a club even a community. Inclusion facilitates positive reactions between with and without disabilities (Kit, 2015).
Inclusion, in the educational system, is the integration of learners with disabilities into general education classes (Voltz et al., 2001). This concept may sound simple, however the reality is much harder to achieve. Inclusion primarily focuses on how to put students with special needs into a general education class, instead of focusing on how to change the general and special education system to better support all students. This is a necessary shift in the way educators, administrators, parents, and communities view the structure of inclusion, which is necessary for its underlying purpose to be realized.
Schools in today’s society are rapidly changing and growing striving to implement the best practices in their schools. Nonetheless, before a school can implement a program in their school, they need reliable evidence that the new program will work. A new program that schools are aiming to implement is inclusion in the classroom because of the benefits inclusion could bring. The implementation of inclusion is strongly connected by people’s attitudes whether they are positive or negative. However, while inclusion is being widely implemented, there is comparatively little data on its effectiveness. It may be that inclusion benefits some areas such as reading and social skills, more than it does others.
Inclusion in classrooms is defined as combining students with disabilities and students without disabilities together in an educational environment. It provides all students with a better sense of belonging. They will enable friendships and evolve feelings of being a member of a diverse community (Bronson, 1999). Inclusion benefits students without disabilities by developing a sense of helping others and respecting other diverse people. By this, the students will build up an appreciation that everyone has unique yet wonderful abilities and personalities (Bronson, 1999). This will enhance their communication skills later in life. Inclusive classrooms provide students with disabilities a better education on the same level as their peers. Since all students would be in the same educational environment, they would follow the same curriculum and not separate ones based on their disability. The main element to a successful inclusive classroom, is the teachers effort to plan the curriculum to fit all students needs. Teachers must make sure that they are making the material challenging enough for students without special needs and understandable to students with special needs. Inclusive classrooms are beneficial to students with and without special needs.
Stainback, S., & Stainback, W. (1996). Inclusion: A guide for educators. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
Inclusion of all students in classrooms has been an ongoing issue for the past twenty-five years (Noll, 2013). The controversy is should special education students be placed in an inclusion setting or should they be placed in a special education classroom? If the answer is yes to all special education students being placed in inclusion, then how should the inclusion model look? Every students is to receive a free an appropriate education. According to the Individual Education Act (IDEA), all students should be placed in the Least Restrictive Learning Environment (Noll, 2013).
Inclusion has become increasingly important in education in recent years, with the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act being passed in 2004 to ensure equality in our system. In summary, inclusion is the idea of there being no child...