The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that schools assist students with disabilities to develop independent living skills and abilities essential to succeed in most of their life's endeavors. According to the law, each student with a disability must have an individualized education program (IEP), and the IEP must address…

The changing of the political and economic systems in Poland ushered in changes in the education system, including special education. After many years of segregation and social exclusion of children with disabilities, ideas of autonomy, normalization, and integration initiated the building of a modern system of education of children and youth.…

What would schools and classrooms look like if they truly mirrored our democratic ideals? In this issue of the Occasional Papers, five authors explore current and historical questions related to the inclusion of children with disabilities in public schools. The history of educating children with disabilities--an ongoing civil rights issue--has…

Students identified with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) present a special case within special educational needs (SEN) and inclusion. EBD is perhaps the only category of SEN that exposes a child to increased risk of exclusion as a function of the very SEN identified as requiring special provision in the first instance. Students…

A group of researchers from Syracuse University's School of Education (New York) conducted 25 case studies of local school programs that had been nominated by teachers, administrators, and parents as being exemplary in integrating children with disabilities into the mainstream of education. The 12 case studies selected for this volume represent…

The paper describes an inner city elementary program for mainstreaming seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) students. It is suggested that the program, despite sharing the building with nonhandicapped students, is really physically segregated, and that rigid use of the Distar curriculum does not prepare the student for later creative problem…

Comparison of attitudes of 47 deaf and normal hearing high school students taught in either self-contained or mainstreamed classrooms found that deaf students in self-contained classrooms expressed significantly more negativism than did students from other educational milieus. (DB)

This program describes a program at one Minnesota elementary school that works to optimally include 32 students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The three special classes involve increasing amounts of time spent in mainstream settings with decreasing amounts of additional support. Key program characteristics include philosophy, goals,…

This report, one of a series of case studies on mainstreaming efforts, describes a self-contained class for nine severely mentally and multiply handicapped 16- to 21-year-olds in an urban middle school. Following a description of the physical and social environment is a review of the history of the program begun in 1978-79. The author observes…

The Albuquerque Public Schools provide services to severely and profoundly handicapped students in side by side sites, programs in which the handicapped students are educated in special classes alongside nonhandicapped students on regular school campuses appropriate to their chronological ages. (SBH)

The program was developed to minimize classroom disruptions which often occur when a behavior problem student (9 to 13 years old) from a special education homeroom is placed in the mainstream. The program also was designed to encourage on task performance and work completion both in the homeroom and mainstream settings through reinforcement for…

This book provides an internationally comparable set of indicators on educational provision for students with disabilities, learning difficulties and disadvantages (DDD). It highlights the number of students involved, where they are educated--special schools, special classes or regular classes--and in what phases of education--pre-primary,…

The Special Opportunities Program (SOP) at the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School in Washington, DC, serves hearing impaired students (two to 14 years old) who have special learning problems on additional handicaps, including developmental disabilities. The SOP is also integrated with the regular program, which eases mainstreaming. (SEW)

Noted are problems such as the increased incidence of handicaps additional to the hearing impairment, the lack of homogeneity among the hearing impaired, and the poor language ability of most hearing impaired students. Current programs in Missouri, California, and New York are briefly described. (DB)

The article describes a social skills training group for 10 British autistic children (ages 9-16 years) which aimed to integrate them into the regular classroom. The weekly sessions were held over 4 years and followed guidelines of G. Mesibov and S. Spence. (Author/DB)