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…

Noting that many teachers and teacher educators were unprepared for the rapid spread of inclusionary placements for at-risk and special learners, this fastback presents principles and practices for teaching struggling learners the basic reading skills they need for academic progress and lifelong learning. The discussions in the fastback are…

This video features the Head Start program director and the school district special education administrator describing and commenting on aspects of the successful collaboration between the Manhattan-Ogden (Kansas) school district and the local Head Start program to gradually include disabled children in the regular Head Start classrooms. The…

This report summarizes a follow-up study of the first cohort of 5,500 limited-English-proficient (LEP) students to be mainstreamed in Newark, New Jersey schools using English-language proficiency as the sole criterion for moving from bilingual to regular classrooms. The mainstreamed cohort was compared to regular students using basic achievement…

This study attempted to implement and validate a 5-month effort to transition 42 pupils with mild and moderate disabilities (most with learning disabilities) out of math instruction in special education resource rooms and into regular education math. A preliminary discussion examines the "cascade of services" model and transenvironmental…

This guide offers specific recommendations to Texas school districts concerning the implementation of least restrictive environment (LRE) requirements for students with disabilities. Suggestions are grouped according to six issues recommended for consideration in the decision making process: These are: (1) the primacy of the individual student's…