About Doug Farmwald Expertise I can answer questions relating to emotional\behavioural disablities (including ADD\ADHD), various learning disabilities, and appropriate classroom accomodations. I would be pleased to help parents understand the IEP process and how it affects their children.
Experience I have taught emotionally/behaviourally disabled students since 1992. I have taught in self contained EH classrooms, mainstream classes, and on the in-patient ward of a juvenile psychiatric hospital. My experience is primarily with adolescents but I have worked with all ages.
Organizations National Association for the Education of Young Children
Question I am a highschool student that has to write a research paper and my topic is the inclusion of special education students. Is segregating special education students beneficial? How? Thanks for your reply!
Answer Hi Emily,
The question you ask has been the cause of a great amount of on-going debate and even litigation for the last 15 years or so. I doubt that I will be able to answer it definitively, but I'll give it a shot.
The short answer is that it depends on the needs of the students. Any disability can qualify a student for special education services. I don't think anyone would argue that kids in wheelchairs or who have asthma should be segregated. Nor would most people argue that individuals who have specific learning disabilites be segregated. In the vast majority of cases, there is no way to tell a special needs student from any other student without looking at personal records and test scores.
I suspect that what you are really asking is, should cognitively disabled students be educated apart? Again, this depends on the needs of the student. Some students suffer from such extreme levels of disability that they will never be able to integrate into a mainstream classroom. And it would make no sense in any case to place an emphasis on academic skills when basic daily living skills are what an individual student needs.
So, no, I do not think all classrooms are approrpiate for all students. However, this is also true for non-special education students. Not everyone should take Physics or Auto Shop. The first principle in education should always be to take a student from where he or she is and move to the next step. Whether that student is 4 or 40 and whether that student needs to learn how to tie shoes or do differential equations.
Regardless of the classroom or program of study that a disabled student may be in, all students benefit by being as involved in the life of the school as possible. Taking part in sports, going to the cafeteria, joining clubs and going to the prom are integral parts of high school life and a disability-whatever it may be- is no reason to exclude anyone from it. Certainly reasonable limits can be expected on the level of participation, not everyone makes the varsity, but there is always something that an individual can do to be part of an activity. The truly damaging aspects of segregating disabled students, in my opinion, result more from the social ostracism that can accompany a label of "special ed." than anything else. It is a very unfortunate aspect of human nature to fear and avoid that which is different and this casues no end of heartache to kids who just want to be part of their school like anyone else. It also causes students to avoid services that might be beneficial to them-books on tape for a dyslexic student for example-because the spectre of being labled "special ed." is so abhorrent.
In general, students qualifying for special education services can, and I believe should, be educated in mainstream classrooms with minimal modifications and adaptations. There will always be some exceptions but they are just that-exceptions. My experience is that the teachers and students in mainstream classes find the prospect of a special needs student joining them to be much more threatening than it need be and certainly much more so than the special needs student finds it.
I hope this is helpful to you. If there is anything I can add,please feel free to write again.
