Inclusion and Inclusive Practices in Special Education

Inclusion as a Location

Many professionals define inclusion on the basis of where students sit in order to receive instruction. For example, they may say that a student is “included” for history and biology but not for English and algebra, meaning that the student attends the first two classes with peers without disabilities but is assigned to a special education setting for the latter two classes. Another example of this conceptualization occurs when individuals discuss “full inclusion,” meaning that students with disabilities are in general education settings at all times. In this framework, expressions such as “inclusion class,” “inclusion teacher,” and “inclusion students” also may be heard. The source of this understanding of inclusion can be traced to federal special education law, which requires each state to report the number of students with disabilities whose school day is spent in several categories of placements (i.e., in general education for more than 80% of the day with typical peers; resource class, 40% to 79% of the day with typical peers; separate class, less than 40% of the day with typical peers).

Because the focus is on where a student sits rather than the character of the education services being received, this understanding of inclusion sometimes results in general education teachers, especially in middle and high schools, assuming that students assigned to their classes should be capable of completing the assigned work with few or no changes. It also sometimes leads to questionable practices, such as having a special educator in a classroom working in a corner of the classroom with several students with disabilities while the general educator teaches the other students. The former group of students is physically present, but they are not truly members of the classroom community. Both of these practices are more consistent with mainstreaming, the conditioned participation of students with disabilities based on their ability to function similarly to typical classmates.

This understanding of inclusion in terms of physical location increasingly has also been applied to the education of other students with special needs, such as those who are English language learners and those who are gifted and talented. That is, they are considered included when they are assigned to a general education setting for part or all of the school day.

Inclusion as a Belief System

Another way to conceptualize inclusion is as a philosophy or belief system on which decisions about the education of students with disabilities and other special needs are based. The belief is that these students should be educated with their peers, even if they are learning in ways significantly different from them. When inclusion is viewed as a philosophy, however, there is an acknowledgment, though with reluctance and vigilance, that there may be some student needs that are best met in a separate setting. This understanding of inclusion is focused on student learning and the support to facilitate learning rather than on location, although location is not completely ignored in the educational planning process. The result is that a wide variety of programs, services, and personnel are utilized to ensure that students with disabilities are truly members of their class groups. For example, a student reading at a level significantly lower than peers might access a computer with text-to-speech software, and a student who cannot learn all the concepts in a science course focuses on those that will most likely be encountered in daily life. Classrooms in inclusive schools typically offer many options to students so that they can reach their learning goals. This belief system extends beyond traditional academic instruction. It is part of related arts classes; lunch, recess, and school convocations; and also extracurricular activities.

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