The paper reviews recent major policy and legal changes in the United States concerning programs for handicapped students, with emphasis on the "least restrictive environment" principle. A set of ten "clusters of capability" is proposed to define some of the new or enlarged areas of responsibility of regular teachers. (Author)

Preparing teachers for mainstreaming is discussed by describing the necessary changes in the regular classroom teacher role and the roles of other school staff members and by considering the issues and problems that must be resolved by teacher educators. (JD)

Available from: Teacher Education and Special Education, The Council for Exceptional Children, 1920 Association Drive, Reston, Virginia 22091. The authors suggest twelve areas for developing mainstream programs in which regular and special educators can work together. (CL)

The article responds to previous articles about the regular education initiative and concludes that there is little evidence to justify present practices of student categorization of the mildly handicapped in special education and that the need for major reform is great. (Author/DB)

In order to comply with law, many states are developing special education programs. These programs often do not recognize the individuality of the child and fail to take into account that the school's inability to cope with a handicapped child is often a factor contributing to the learning disability. (HMD)

The article focuses on the mainstreaming trends resulting from Public Law 94-142 and other legislation requiring that regular school systems accommodate their programs to handicapped students. Topics of concern in restructuring schools and programs include individual assessment and placement, consultation, social skills, and programmatic…

Discussed in the speech on criteria in the public education of the severely handicapped are historical developments leading to the current situation, the kinds of developing structures emerging in special education, the question of criteria and its ramifications, and major tasks to be accomplished. Identified are four historical stages in special…

The demands placed upon school personnel by Public Law 94-142 are discussed. Activities of a National Support Systems Project which resulted in identification of capabilities required of teachers and development of resource units to help teacher educators meet that need are described. A list of unit topics is included. (PP)

A renegotiation of relationships between special education faculties and other units of colleges of education is underway in order to prepare a new corps of regular teachers who are capable of carrying out their expanded roles in serving handicapped students. The federal government has provided eighty one "Deans' Grants" funds to be used mainly…

Judicial pronouncements and legislative acts in recent years have established the responsibility of schools to provide educational services for each child, preferably in the educational mainstream. Mainstreaming represents an effort to provide equal opportunities for education to all children. A brief treatment of some of the foundational aspects…

The "special" quality of special education is the body of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which are used in the education and training of exceptional school children. In practice, these children have been those who public school systems could not or would not teach. The history of education for exceptional children is a simple story of massive…

Regular class placement, or mainstreaming, of handicapped children is examined from three aspects, and a number of implications are noted for the clinical portion of preservice teacher preparation programs, with the observation that such programs are lagging behind educational practice in meeting the needs of handicapped children. Examined as…

How to effectively and efficiently serve students with disabilities in regular education (progressive inclusion) is an important current theme. The paper examines deep structural, demographic, and socioeconomic changes that affect such students, highlights a progressive inclusion policy, examines design characteristics of inclusive schools, and…

A review of the history of special education delivery systems reveals a continuous trend toward progressive inclusion. Because it is now possible to serve all disabled students in neighborhood schools, remote specialized places such as the residential and day school are likely to be eliminated. (Author/DB)

The introductory text focuses on special education in the mainstream with two major themes: (1) the central and joint responsibility of teacher, parent, and principal; and (2) the primary need to limit the occurrence and magnitude of educational problems in handicapped children. The book's approach includes emphasizing processes that blend special…