This paper describes collegial coaching as a means of providing general and special educators with the collaboration, materials exchange, and emotional support needed to teach all children in an inclusive setting. A brief review of the literature precedes a discussion of prerequisites for collegial coaching (such as self-confidence and respect for…

This report suggests that in order to enhance implementation of inclusion in rural schools, specific strategies related to instruction, assessment, and collaboration must be adopted. The report overviews cooperative learning strategies that can be used for teaching reading inclusively at the elementary level. The question-answer relationships…

This manual provides guidelines and forms for implementing a planning team approach to support students with emotional and behavioral difficulties in regular education settings, developed as part of a 3-year federally funded project to enhance the capability of 30 Vermont public schools. Following an introduction, a student profile is reviewed…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the leadership factors that emerged during the planning and implementation of a neighborhood schooling program for special education students with mild and moderate handicapping conditions in 12 schools in an urban school district in a community in the southwestern United States. Leadership is…

The Mentor Supported School Success Program was developed by the rural school district of Dorchester County, Maryland, as an effort to include students displaying troubling behaviors in regular classroom settings. The program offers supplementary support to current school programming through the use of mentors. In the first year of the program,…

This paper describes the efforts of a team of parents, educators, and related personnel to promote successful classroom inclusion of Erin, a girl with Downs Syndrome, during grades K-4. Erin's parents were pioneers in the inclusion movement in rural Mecosta-Osceola Intermediate School District (Michigan), and when Erin was 5, they insisted that…

Since the advent of the Education for Handicapped Children Act of 1975, the provision of special education has moved from restrictive settings to the general education environment. Presently, schools are placing learners with special education needs into the general education classroom and providing special education services in that environment.…

Class-Within-A-Class (CWC) is an inclusion program that has been in existence since 1984 at a midwestern suburban/rural school of approximately 1,200 K-12 students. Special and general educators collaborate in teaching both disabled and regular students in a regular classroom setting. Teachers participate in inservice programs covering effective…

Project LIFE (Lifelong Impact From Education) was a 3-year federally funded program to develop, field test, and disseminate a collaborative model that increases the capacity of neighborhood schools and local education agencies to provide appropriate educational services to children with deaf-blindness in general education settings and improve…

Basic information about child care settings and the Americans with Disabilities Act is presented in a question-and-answer format. The following questions are addressed: "What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?"; "What is the definition of an individual with a disability under the ADA?"; "What does the ADA mean…

The Collaborative Education Project's goal was to assess the effectiveness of collaborative problem solving (CPS) by peer advocates for enhancing the integration of students with severe disabilities into regular early education contexts. The CPS strategy gives some responsibility to nondisabled students for the planning and design of activities…

This paper calls for the collaboration of general educators and special educators as cooperative teaching teams to better serve diverse student populations. Research in Anne Arundel County (Maryland) indicating significantly higher passage rates on statewide minimum competency tests, by students (n=343) in co-taught high school classes compared to…

This handbook is designed to help public school administrators to develop policies and procedures that allow for the appropriate educational placement of preschool children with disabilities in mainstreaming settings. Part I contains background information and materials on legal requirements related to mainstreaming, the efficacy of early…

This report presents the results of surveys of school jurisdictions, Early Childhood Services (ECS) private operators, and private school personnel across Alberta, Canada. The purpose of these surveys was to consolidate information on the relative incidence rates of students with special needs receiving education programs in Alberta. The report's…

In collaborative schools, regular and special education teachers meet regularly to analyze and make decisions about instructional practices and services to meet the needs of all students. This paper explores the effectiveness of a school development model in helping small rural schools adopt three characteristics of collaborative schools: (1) a…