What is Inclusion?

Inclusion IS...

Based in home schools

• ALL children attend the schools they would attend even if they weren't eligible for special education services.

Based in age-appropriate, general education classes with support services from special education

• Children with disabilities participate as members of general education, age-appropriate classes and receive services from special education based on Individual Education Plans (IEPs).

Based on zero-reject

• Students with disabilities follow the same schedules, use the same facilities, and participate partially or fully in academics, extracurricular, and co-curricular activities alongside students without disabilities
• Students receive support and encouragement to develop friendships and social relationships with students who don't have disabilities.
• Students with disabilities receive their education and job training in natural community environments.

Based on cooperative learning and peer instruction

• All teachers are trained to deal with students of all abilities through a unified rather than parallel teacher training system.
• Instructional teams include teachers, special educators, parents, instructional aides, and therapists.
• Students with and without disabilities benefit from peer instruction.

Inclusion is NOT...

• Dumping students with disabilities into general education classrooms without preparation or support.
• Isolating students with disabilities in general education schools and classes.
• Ignoring students’ individual needs.
• Exposing students to unnecessary hazards or risks.
• Allowing only some kids to be in general education classrooms.
• Requiring students to fit the program, rather than fitting the program to the students.
• Segregating special education classes in separate wings at a regular school.
• Ignoring parents’ concerns.
• Placing unreasonable demands on teachers and administrators.

What Inclusive Schools Look Like...

• All children are taught to understand and appreciate human differences.
• Teachers and administrators receive the support necessary to include all students in general education classrooms.
• Parents’ concerns for their children are taken seriously.
• Cooperative learning and peer instruction are strategies used throughout the school.
• "All" means "all," not "all but…"
• Special education is a service, not a place.
• All kids are given the opportunity to develop real friends, not just peer buddies or helpers.
• The entire community honors diversity and supports quality education for all students.

History of Inclusion

Inclusion Works!

Inclusion Works! began in 1993 as a five-year grant project funded by the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, the Texas Education Agency, and The Arc of Texas. The intent of the project was to promote a statewide systems change in the way Texas schools educate children with disabilities. The Inclusion Works! Conference continues to exist to increase opportunities for all students to belong and contribute to the school community and to learn, work, and play with their same-age peers in general education settings. Since the original grant the TXDDC funded the Inclusion Works Conference for an additional three years. Currently The Arc of Texas and the Texas Education Agency through the Accessing the General Curriculum Network provide funding to continue The Inclusion Works Conference to bring state of the art information on Inclusive Education from prominent national experts to Texas. The Arc of Texas continues its fervent commitment to being the state's leader in promoting the practices of inclusive education.

The Legal Impetus for Inclusive Education

In 1975, the United States Congress passed Public Law 94-142, which is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This law was designed to assure all students with disabilities the right to receive a "free and appropriate public education." Part of the language in the IDEA sets a strong precedent for inclusive education, as the following excerpts indicate:

"To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities...are educated with children who are not disabled," and

"special classes, separate schooling, or other removal...from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability...is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily."

As Public Law 94-142 was passed, Senator Robert Stafford eloquently articulated the spirit of what the IDEA was intended to accomplish:

"This thing that we do, then, is not only an act of law for equality in education, but an act of LOVE for those extraordinary children wishing only to live ordinary lives."

When IDEA was reauthorized in 2004 Congress raised the expectations for teaching children with disabilities when they found that : “30 years of research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by having high expectations for such children and ensuring their access to the general education curriculum in the regular classroom to the maximum extent possible in order to meet developmental goals and, to the maximum extent possible, the challenging expectations that have been established for all children and be prepared to lead productive and independent adult lives, and to improve their academic achievement and functional performance to the maximum extent possible.”