Discusses the American with Disabilities Act, a civil rights act requiring that all businesses, including parks and recreation facilities, be accessible to people with disabilities. The article discusses discrimination, integration, funding concerns, attitudes, and staffing issues. Information sources are listed. (SM)

Five regular and special education teachers collaborating in mainstreamed classes in Virginia elementary, middle, and high schools were interviewed to determine how the teachers came to collaborate; how they collaborated; changes they experienced as a result of collaboration; and benefits (instructional, professional, affective) and concerns…

This study surveyed the beliefs and attitudes of a Colorado school district personnel regarding the inclusion of all students. Responses (n=246) indicated significant differences between attitudes of elementary and secondary teaching staff, a need for more time for cooperative planning, and that the issue of inclusion had created tensions among…

This study of 14 children (ages 3-5) with disabilities participating in the Classwide Social Skills Program found that the program increased subjects' positive play and levels of teacher reinforcement, but these increases did not generalize to 3-month or 6-month follow-up periods nor to another play session in the day. (Author/JDD)

A 14-year-old girl with blindness who lived in an isolated religious community in northern British Columbia (Canada) was successfully integrated into the public school system. Four critical issues in planning for integration included family information and involvement, community awareness, empowerment of the individual, and opportunities for…

Academic performance differences between 35 general education students, educated in an environment that included 5 students with mental handicaps or emotional disorder, and 108 general education students in noninclusive environments were compared. Results revealed no significant differences between the two groups in reading, language arts,…

The use of a teletypewriter (TTY) to help a primary grade deaf child better communicate with hearing peers is described by the child's parents. The article addresses obtaining the two TTY machines, involving the teacher, learning to use the machine by both deaf and hearing children, and the machine's value for developing language skills in…

Trends in student assessment in classrooms including students with and without disabilities are identified, and an approach called cooperative assessment, in which teachers consult to share knowledge and cooperate to solve problems, is detailed. A six-step cooperative assessment process is outlined. (DB)

A group-administered interview was administered in 16 third- through sixth-grade classes (n=406) including 20 students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Although boys with EBD were assessed by peers as significantly higher in aggression and disruption and lower in cooperation than general education boys, they tended to associate with…

Using an integrated curriculum anchored in science and multimedia technology, Project LINCOL'N (Living in the New Computer Oriented Learning 'Nvironment) facilitates active learning for all students. The project's vision is to enable all students, including those with disabilities, to engage in authentic learning in a problem-solving environment.…

Interviews conducted with 13 parents, 7 teachers, and 3 school administrators in Arezzo, Italy, indicated strong teacher and administrative support for integration of students with disabilities, a good collaborative relationship between regular and special education teachers, and a focus on social development in elementary grades. Insufficient…

Inclusion is not a place, but an educational philosophy that encompasses curriculum and instructional practices, school culture and organization, and school staffing patterns. This article examines the superintendent's role in creating inclusive schools, highlighting planning, implementation, training, parental involvement, budgeting, and…

This paper argues for a paradigmatic shift away from individualistic models of development and learning in early childhood special education to a social constructivist model. Principles for inclusive early childhood practice are explicated, based on classrooms as communities, learning as socially mediated, curriculum as contextually relevant and…

Five single-subject studies indicated that adolescents with learning disabilities can successfully implement self-monitoring procedures in special and regular education settings and correspondingly improve their on-task behavior, without regard to classmates' percentage of on-task behavior and with fading of reinforcement and self-monitoring.…

This article reanalyzes the principle of partial participation in integrated educational programing for students with severe or profound disabilities. The article presents four "error patterns" in how the concept has been used, some reasons why such error patterns have occurred, and strategies for avoiding these errors. (Author/JDD)