Maybe Mainstreaming Isn’t Always for Every Student
It’s generally assumed that mainstreaming and inclusion are the better, if not the best, options for special needs children—-but a November 27th article in the Wall Street Journal reports that a number of parents in New Jersey and around the nation think otherwise. Norette Travis’ daughter Valerie
had already tried the mainstreaming approach that the disability-advocacy groups were supporting. After attending a preschool program for special-needs students, she was assigned to a regular kindergarten class. But there, her mother says, she disrupted class, ran through the hallways and lashed out at others — at one point giving a teacher a black eye.
“She did not learn anything that year,” Ms. Travis recalls. “She regressed.”
There are 80 publicly funded separate schools for the disabled in New Jersey and about 175 private ones; in 2004, New Jersey instituted a one-year moratorium on new private special education schools being created. The state spends about $16,100 a year on each special student; average at for special ed public schools is $28,500 to $42,000, while the average tuition for a private school is $44,000. (And that does not include transportation costs.)
As Ruth Lowenkron, a special-education attorney, is quoted: “‘inclusion is cheaper than segregation,’” and especially when that special education involves highly trained staff, facilities specially designed to accommodate the needs of disabled students, not to mention special materials or technological devices (such as an augmentative communication device).
We’ve learned slowly that mainstreaming is another possible aspect of Charlie’s education, but not the goal. It seemed that Charlie might be mainstreamed when he was 5 years old; at 10 1/2, he is happily settled in a self-contained one-on-one autism classroom that uses ABA. He does attend a school in our town and is among the other students who seem him; right now, this is enough inclusion: Charlie is in school to learn and he really needs a specialized environment—but I do think it is important that his school program is part of the programs of our local school district.
Separate can sometimes mean more than equal.
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POSTED IN: Disability Rights, Education, Money
41 opinions for Maybe Mainstreaming Isn’t Always for Every Student
Leanne
Nov 29, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I think when it comes to schooling each child is different. Patrick is doing well in a mainstreamed kindergarten right now. Will he always be mainstreamed?? Who knows. I certainly wouldn’t keep him mainstreamed if a contained classroom was better FOR HIM at any particular time.
Sounds like Charlie is doing really well in his class.
Leila
Nov 29, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I’m with you, Kristina and Leanne… It has to be evaluated on an individual basis. I’ll love to see my child mainstreamed, but only if it means that he is thriving and following the general curriculum with the necessary modifications.
It also depends on how resourceful the teacher is when trying to include the special needs child in the general program. The teachers in my son’s regular preschool are learning a lot by dealing with him (the first autistic child that they’ve had) and by talking to his ABA therapists. They are really doing their best to include him for real. It’s funny because they always know he’s the one who’ll give the right answers about shapes, letters, etc. However they need more work on learning how to rephrase open-ended or other questions that are hard for him to understand, even if he’d know the answer.
Leila
Nov 29, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Oh, and another goal we have right now is to teach my son to say “I don’t know” when he really doesn’t know the answer, rather than just not responding at all.
Bink
Nov 29, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Leila, I remember teaching “I don’t know” to my child, too.
A few years ago I thought inclusion was the most important thing. It’s been good in ways but a struggle in other ways. Now as my child ages it is more and more clear how much of a struggle it is from a social point of view, and a sensory one, for her to be in a “typical” class. I’m thinking of homeschooling, actually. Kids are mean, and most teachers will assume that being in a typical class means the student should be acting in a typical manner, no matter how one tries to educate them. I lie awake at night and wonder, am I allowing my kid to be bullied and excluded because of my beliefs about inclusion? I think it’s time to consider alternatives. And I battled the school district tooth and nail to have her in a typical kindergarten! Oh well…live and learn. We have to constantly re-evaluate things, all of us.
KimJ
Nov 29, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I don’t know, I’ve never seen a self-contained classroom that wasn’t saving the district big $$$. Segregation seems to save money because it often warehouses children and doesn’t emphasize educational goals. For instance, in a k-2 self-contained “autism clinic”, there is nursery music playing, 2-3 aides watching up to 13 students and students are pretty much doing the sames things. The most expensive things in the classroom are the laminated PECs they may or may not be used in teaching situations.
These aides aren’t trained in autism, neither are the teachers-autism training is elective in this disctrict. The aides are rarely available for mainstreamed students, it’s too expensive. In fact, the district officials actually tell us that there are no 1-1 aides. Schools here share Speech and Language Pathologists, and students meet with them in groups.
The special ed teacher, perplexed by our insistence on meeting IEP goals while he’s also attending regular 2nd grade, suggested he be “undiagnosed” and reclassified as a general ed student.
Also, in this district and the last one we lived in California not all the schools are required to have dedicated special ed rooms and teachers. So, kids can be segregated from certain neighborhood schools that want to emphasize pet interests rather than include all types of children.
Could you imagine a school opting out of building wheelchair ramps and other handicapped accesses in favor of constructing a baseball diamond?
Artemisia
Nov 29, 2007 at 3:34 pm
One of my friends used to talk of “exclusion by inclusion” - his daughter simply wasn’t learning enough in a mainstream classroom to have any hope of ever really being included academically and socially. She ended up, like my son, with a lot of pull-out and home hours devoted to 1:1 ABA.
On the other hand, I hate to see situations where kids *could* succeed in a mainstream setting but fail because the school or individual teacher doesn’t provide the support needed. This happened in my (typical) son’s second grade class. It was horrifying - I think the principal just wanted the kid out of her school.
Policy needs to emphasize that kids should get whatever they need individually to succeed, whether it’s inclusion with whatever support is needed or pull-out therapies or whatever combination.
mcewen
Nov 29, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I tend to err on the side of cynicism. I think it is a goal for many people, but I just see it as a cost cutting exercise, an empty ‘prize.’
Best wishes
VAB
Nov 29, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I cannot agree that “inclusion is cheaper than segregation.” Fully supported mainstreaming is much more expensive than fully supported segregation, simply because there are no economies of scale. Inclusion is only cheap if you use it as an excuse not to provide services.
I think it is worth keeping in mind that mainstreaming is not only about educating kids with developmental differences. It is also about educating typically developing kids about kids with developmental differences. If we want integrated adulthoods we have to start with integrated childhoods.
mommy~dearest
Nov 29, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I agree with the masses. I feel that each child is going to fare differently in each situation. If a child is responding well with inclusion, great! I fully believe that whatever it takes to maximize a child’s potential, should be the way to go.
Amanda
Nov 29, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Why is it that when a non-disabled child finds the school system not working for them, people fight to change the school system, and when a disabled child finds the school system not working for them, it’s a “failure of mainstreaming/inclusion”?
And why are mainstreaming and inclusion used as identical words when they mean nothing of the same thing at all?
Mekei
Nov 29, 2007 at 5:04 pm
*I hate to see situations where kids *could* succeed in a mainstream setting but fail because the school or individual teacher doesn’t provide the support needed.*
Herein lies the rub.
Many districts will attempt to place a child in –what I call–a one-size-fits-all classroom because it’s the “least restrictive environment.” This truly is the least expensive option. When it becomes apparent the situation is not working (after weeks & months of trying this, that and the other thing), parents have to begin the process of asking for the services that should have been implemented in the first place.
Inclusion is not for everyone and a district’s *least restrictive* environment may just be the most cofinining environment for a particular child.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 29, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Charlie’s “self-contained” classroom is not a cost-cutting measure, as revealed in the budget that the school district puts out. But he and his classmates are not “hidden.” Just as “mainstreaming” and “inclusion” need to be assessed according to each student’s needs, so can “self-contained” have different meanings. That said, I always ask myself if I should be more insistent on Charlie being included more with his non-classified peers; this discussion is reminding me that I have to always keep discerning what is “appropriate” and be wary of being dogmatic.
Ralph Savarese
Nov 29, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I agree with Amanda, though I concede that one has to cater EVERY educational plan to the particular needs of individual children. If by mainstreaming we mean practically dumping a kid with significant challenges into a regular classroom and, in doing so, providing the teacher with little help and still less instruction and the child with an environment that hasn’t at all been adapted to his/her needs, well, then, of course mainstreaming won’t work. Then the media can conclude–cynically and dragging all sorts of parents with them–that INCLUSION is unproductive, if not destructive, for EVERYONE. My son’s story says otherwise: inclusion (the opposite of “warm body” mainstreaming) can profit all involved. But it requires work, imagination, flexibility, and a tolerance for occasional failure. I fear that the self-contained classroom or special school model prepares neither the child with autism nor the often bigoted neurotypical person for LIFE TOGETHER. Segregation breeds segregation. This doesn’t mean that kids can’t at times pop out of the regular curriculum for specialized instruction, but it does mean discovering ways of fostering genuine interaction–beyond PE and lunch. There’s so much good information out there now about how to make inclusion work. Has anybody read, for example, Paula Kluth’s YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THIS KID?
–Ralph James Savarese
Autismville
Nov 29, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I agree with so many points made before.
When we lived in Texas, our prestigous school district wanted to “include” Jack. What inclusion meant to them was throwing a non-verbal child with severe autism into a traditional pre-school class without an aide. When I asked that at the very least he be provided support via an aide, the SPED director told me “Parents do not have the right to request aides…”
We placed Jack in a private ABA based preschool that had 10 kids with autism and 20 “typical peers” because we felt we couldn’t waste time battling the school district. Eventually my husband’s job led us to Massachusetts, where we’ve been since August.
Our new school district has been wonderful. They really pushed for the least, restrictive setting … which in his case was a self-contained classroom in a neighboring school district. We ended up lobbying for placement at a private school. Our hope is that he will improve and we will eventually maintstream him. Only time will tell when and if that will occur. It’s a fluid situation and I, like you Dr. Chew, have learned to watch it when I start feeling dogmatic.
We shall see… For now, it sounds corny, but I have peace of mind knowing that Jack is in the appropriate placement. Thank goodness our IEP team was able to recognize what he needed.
Club 166
Nov 29, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Funny this topic should come up.
My wife e-mailed me a link to the trailer for an independent film dealing with inclusion coming out called “Including Samuel”.
The trailer can be found here:
http://www.includingsamuel.com/preview/
Joe
Regan
Nov 29, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Placement is a set of services, not a “place”.
Inclusion vs. Mainstreaming
These terms are sometimes used interchangeably
but in fact are two different things. Inclusion means the child is in a regular classroom with the appropriate aids and services necessary so the child can receive an appropriate education, when s/he is “included”. These can include modifications of schoolwork and accommodation of needed technology and additional supports of bringing the specialized instruction to the regular classroom vs. taking the child to a different location. The move to a more restricted environment is predicated on the inability of a child to obtain an appropriate and make meaningful progress in the proposed inclusion setting AFTER the discussion of needed and practical modifications and accommodations.
Mainstreaming, on the other hand, is when a child is in a removed environment for some or the majority of the day but is given opportunities to participate with typical peers in a regular classroom or nonacademic offerings.
“Dumping”, to put it colloquially, is putting a student on an IEP in the regular classroom with no, or insufficient supports, accommodations or modifications, is neither inclusion nor mainstreaming, nor a free and appropriate public education as defined in IDEA.
Being put in a removed environment because of a particular diagnosis and not predicated on individualized specific goals itemized in the IEP is not a free and appropriate public education as defined in IDEA.
Caroline L.
Nov 29, 2007 at 7:30 pm
What Artemisia and Mekei wrote describes our situation exactly, right down to “the principal just wanted the kid out of her school”.
And our kids understand all of it, every negative comment or look in their presence.
I have said this here before…when inclusion is implemented properly - nothing to do with the child’s abilities - it is like heaven on earth.
And I will certainly read Paula Kluth’s ‘You’re Going to Love this Kid’ -
as the teachers and students loved my child when inclusion was working -
the services, support and parent/school communication were NOT implemented adequately at all,
but the teacher and the para were excellent and treated my kid like the other children - with love and understanding and respect.
Please tell D.J. that ‘easy breathing’ has become my mantra whenever my child has an episode!
Thank you to Amanda, Ralph and Kristina for all you do, to quote my political hero, Howard Dean.
Bink
Nov 29, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I think a lot of teachers and administrators don’t understand, or care to learn, the difference between inclusion and mainstreaming. And I also think that a lot of parents fight very hard to change the system and get the education that their disabled children are entitled to. I know I did and do. But one can have the most iron-clad IEP in the world, one can pay for teachers to attend educational seminars, one can hire outside experts to attend IEP meetings, one can hire lawyers, one can hand out copies of Paula Kluth’s book right and left, and so on — I know I did — but if the people who work with your child don’t care about inclusion, then it won’t work. They can find a thousand little, subtle ways to make it not work, ways which will make your child’s life miserable. Sorry if that sounds all black-helicopterish but I do think it’s true. And one can only fight the system so much while one’s child is suffering before one moves on. If it were me being made miserable, I would stay and fight. But how long am I supposed to keep fighting while my beloved child is being made miserable, day in and day out? Why should she suffer for the greater good? For many parents, it comes down to that. My child is more important than the greater political battle. I think the schools know that, too.
Bink
Nov 29, 2007 at 7:41 pm
X-post with Caroline L.
Beth
Nov 29, 2007 at 7:54 pm
There is a middle ground. My son is in partial inclusion and is thriving. I was prepared to resist the recommendation and insist on full inclusion until I saw the classroom. He is in self-contained for core academic subjects (reading and math) and social skills. They integrate as a group (7 high functioning kids with varying diagnoses) with two aides for all other activities (social studies, art, gym, etc.) I have no doubt that he has made significant academic gains because of the small group setting. I think this gives him the best of both worlds.
KimJ
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I see that I didn’t understand the difference between “mainstream” and “inclusion”. However, in my post, either word fits the complaint. The schools here won’t allocate 1-1 aides for either mainstreaming or inclusion.
My son is “fully included” and I continually hear that “no one has ever done this before”. Our insistence that he is included in 2nd grade is due to his academic readiness, his love for his peers and the utter pointlessness of the self-contained classroom as it’s presented to us. Though, the second they provide evidence that they aren’t ensuring his success at school, we’ll pull him out and homeschool him.
Caroline L.
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:05 pm
One question - why do children in self contained ‘classrooms’ or time out rooms not have access to grade level work - even if it given to parents?
I am in the dark if there is some law about this.
ange
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I haven’t read the other comments yet, but will when I get home. To me you can’t really compare incusion in the community, school, etc. to segregation as one better than the other when you are comparing a broken system. Inclusion into a defunct system isn’t working or good or better or whatever because the system is broken, be it the community, school, or whatever. This is why I struggle, because I want inclusion for all. But I want what my boys need RIGHT NOW. And how do I get both?
Leila
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Regan, thanks for the clarification.
I understand what Bink means. It’s sad that there is so much discrepancy in what’s offered in terms of special education resources in each area of the country, and it may come down to funding or just the lack of interest by a teacher, or school. Before I pick the school to enroll my son on kindergarten, I’m networking with a couple of SpEd program specialists in my District to find out which schools are more supportive and have more experience with including autistic kids.
neil
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:30 pm
We currently have our daughter at two schools, on a Monday & Tuesday she attends mainstream and the rest of the week an autistic school and has done so for two years with the idea that she would go completely mainstream.
There appears to be little will on the part of the mainstream school to intergrate her properly, with her teacher telling us that she didn’t have time to access the autistic school for help with issues despite it being made clear to her by us and the autistic school, that this was a great resource. We have since found out that our daughter is being allowed to play on the class computer while the other students do their school work, after her teacher aide leaves. Even with the school concert, our daughter wasn’t included until we insisted that she was more than capable, being a veteran of many dance class concerts. We have decided next year, she will attend only one school, can you guess which one?
Regan
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Maybe there are folks out there who are having above grade level material delivered under the IEP, but having had a wrangle with our district about it in relationship to reading, which I wanted to introduce early as a scaffolding skill on the basis that it was a strength area and something that Eleanor appeared to want to do, the explanation given was that it not “developmentally appropriate” and would constitute enrichment activities above age or grade level and not specialized instruction to remediate skill deficit or disparity. We could borrow the materials, we could even teach it ourselves, what we could not negotiate was to have the program staff do it and to have it codified in the IEP. I just wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience or if this was us dropping the ball? Short version is that her dad and I taught reading.
Beth
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:41 pm
To Caroline:
I think that you can include something in the IEP with regard to grade level work. In my son’s IEP there is the following phrase:
“will be able to access some of the regular education curriculum with teacher intervention and the necessary support systems.”
I think that my son is doing some grade level work but since he is my oldest, it’s hard for me to asses how off of the mark his curriculum is compared to the regular 3rd grade curriculum. In fact, report cards come out Monday and his parent-teacher conference is Wednesday so I was planning to ask her this week.
My basic point is that I think you can have this put into the next ed plan.
Caroline L.
Nov 29, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Thank you Beth, Regan and Neil -
my child, as I am sure all our children do, if given the exposure - enjoy learning when age appropriate material is presented with neccessary modifications - but this does not mean dumbing down the curriculum - just some enlightened teaching.
If the parents are willing to do this outside of school, why should they be denied this? I wonder.
I think our school district just wants us to leave. Ah, well, not going to happen.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 29, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Thank you to everyone for this enlightening discussion (which I hope will keep going)—-these issues are the ones I think about all the time because they involve what my son is doing during his time at school—-they involve what he does every day. And I need to keep thinking and learning as Charlie is constantly changing and I have to keep thinking, how can we change the world around him?
KimJ
Nov 29, 2007 at 10:45 pm
I think it’s interesting that we insist on IEPs being specialized and tailored and we deny the “one size fits all” approach. Yet we all are asking for pretty much the same thing: level-appropriate, integrated, included education.
Caroline, I know there are self-contained classrooms that exist and allow for grade level “study” but the ones I know of are independent study halls, in a separate school wholly segregated.
ange
Nov 29, 2007 at 11:33 pm
After reading the comments, I don’t think I could say what I feel better than Bink did!
Deborah
Nov 30, 2007 at 3:02 pm
On this particular topic I believe that inclusion is not necessarily the right option for all of our autistic children. I have heard the arguments supporting it (i.e. ASD children become more verbal when schooled with verbal children, same for behavior issues) inclusion. However, for my son inclusion is not the answer. Vista is the best placement for my son. What use to really piss me off was when these so-called experts tried to make me feel like dirt because I wasn’t putting him in an inclusive educational environment. Sometimes they are as bad as the school districts who fight parents at every turn when the child needs special services. I for one do NOT appreciate having my knowledge about my son being circumvented by those who spend maybe an hour or two with him on a yearly basis.
DEB
emily
Nov 30, 2007 at 8:47 pm
My understanding is that the IEP should address the student’s strengths AND weaknesses. ITO grade-level work: I think that sometimes depends on the nature of the self-contained class and the mix of students in that class. In my school district, one concern parents have is that if their child has, say, behavior and social issues but no academic delays, they’re not going to get challenged in self-contained. In some cases, kids are mainstreamed for part of the day when the gen ed class is learning about the child’s area of academic strength. The big issue is the flexibility of the type of integration and support: my district, which is pretty good on spec ed issues, is learning to provide a range of placements.
My daughter is in middle school in a general education setting. She started in a self-contained class and I pushed for mainstreaming mostly for social reasons: there were very few girls in the class.
Amanda
Dec 1, 2007 at 4:53 am
Actually, I’d go farther than some definitions of inclusion given here. The way I heard it, “If some kids are ‘regular kids’ and some kids are ‘included kids’, it’s not inclusion.” Wish I could remember the source of that quote.
But, as probably I’ve said many times before, I don’t believe in the traditional educational system, I don’t think it’s an inclusive environment even for those kids who manage in it okay, nor do I think it’s an optimal learning environment. (The fact that it takes learning, which is something children generally have great interest in doing, and turns it into something that children dread, says a lot right there.)
Regan
Dec 1, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I wanted to post the link from a very interesting website that I found last night that is intense about inclusion, not only in school (although that is the emphasis), but also in society. There are also other links, articles and stories that I found thought provoking.
http://www.kidstogether.org/inclusion.htm
This and Last’s Weeks Top Posts
Dec 2, 2007 at 8:22 pm
[…] Maybe Mainstreaming Isn’t Always for Every StudentIt’s generally assumed that mainstreaming and inclusion are the better, if not the best, options for special needs children—-but a November 27th article in the Wall Street Journal reports that a number of parents in New Jersey and around the nation think otherwise. […]
Tammy Glaser
Dec 2, 2007 at 9:12 pm
As a homeschooler, I believe with every fiber of my being that YOU, the parent, have a better idea of what is working well for your unique child. Every child is different and need more, or less, support than other children. I think it is far more effective to focus on the I in IEP (individual) rather than make a case for mainstreaming, inclusion, special ed, charter school, special school, or homeschooling. Parents would be better off if they had choice in the environment best suited for their child!
BTW, I consider my daughter mainstreamed because she is out and about in the community, sings in the adult choir (she is 18 yo), sings with the youth/young adult choir, etc. She is also special ed in that she still needs therapies to help her with speech and relationship skills, not to mention that she is working at Grade 6 math.
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