Mainstreaming

Hallahan and Kauffman (2000) defined mainstreaming as “the placement of students with disabilities in general education classes for all or part of the day and for all or only a few classes” (p. 66). Students with disabilities may be assigned to a continuum of educational placements from general education classroom, on one end of a continuum, to institutionalization on the other. A student's placement within this continuum is determined by his or her Individualized Education Plan (IEP) committee. Several factors contributed to the mainstreaming movement such as normalization, deinstitutionalization, early intervention and early childhood programs, technology advances, and legislative actions such as the 1990 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (previously known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act [1975]). Developments in the past decade have moved the discussion of mainstreaming toward inclusive education, whose advocates propose that all students’ educational needs can be met in general education classrooms.