The journey to becoming an Inclusive School may be long and challenging at times, but ultimately this journey can strengthen a school community and benefitALL children. "Inclusion" does not simply mean the placement of students with disabilities in general education classes. This process must incorporate fundamental change in the way a school community supports and addresses the individual needs of each child. As such, effective models of inclusive education not only benefit students with disabilities, but also create an environment in which every student, including those who do not have disabilities, has the opportunity to flourish. Here are some ways in which inclusive educational practices build a school's capacity to educate all learners effectively.
Differentiated instruction increases student engagement.
One of the most important principles of inclusive education is that no two learners are alike, and so inclusive schools place great importance on creating opportunities for students to learn and be assessed in a variety of ways. Teachers in inclusive schools therefore must consider a wide range of learning modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.) in designing instruction. Certainly this enhances the way in which educators provide supports and accommodations for students with disabilities, but it also diversifies the educational experience of all students.
Academic supports help each student access the full curriculum.
In this age of accountability and high-stakes testing, it is important for educators to ensure that every student is addressing the appropriate standards and objectives across the curriculum. As such, inclusive schools provide academic supports (flexible pacing and grouping, reading and literacy specialists, tutoring, etc.) that create a supportive environment for all learners. It is immediately clear how these supports help students with disabilities and English Language Learners, but inclusive schools can also better challenge and engage gifted and talented learners by building a more responsive learning environment.
Behavioral supports help maintain a positive learning environment for everyone.
Another important factor in effective inclusive education is the implementation of consistent behavioral supports throughout the learning environment. This consistency is essential for the success of students with emotional or behavioral disabilities in the general education environment, but school-wide behavioral supports also help to establish high expectations throughout the school community as a whole.
Respect for diversity creates a welcoming environment for all.
Inclusive education for students with disabilities can only be successful when those students feel that they are truly a part of the school community. This requires open and honest discussion about difference, and an institutional respect for people of all backgrounds and abilities. In inclusive schools, the establishment of such a climate benefits everyone by fostering an environment where students and their families are valued for who they are.
Inclusive practices make effective use of a school's resources.
In the past, special education often involved the segregation of students with disabilities for the purpose of specialized instruction. Not only does that model of special education in a separate setting deprive students with disabilities of interaction with their peers and full access to the curriculum, it can also involve duplicate systems and resources that are costly for schools to maintain. Inclusive education can make more efficient use of a school's resources by maximizing the availability of staff and materials for all students.=
To read more about benefits of inclusive education for all students, check out Improving Education: The Promise of Inclusive Education. This paper is an excellent resource for educators looking to improve and expand inclusive educational practices in their schools. It was developed by the National Institute for Urban School Improvement, a project funded by the United States Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), and it includes examples of inclusive educational environments, assessment and observation tools, and guidelines for supporting inclusive practices.
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I like the fact that you state that it is challenging. I understand the proponent for inclusive education and how it can benefit most individuals involved. I just wish there would be a more indepth discussion on the how.
You may want to look at our Inclusive Schools Week Resources for specific lessons and ideas of how to incorporate Inclusive lessons in your curriculum. We also have a foldable available in our shop that includes 30 Ways to Support Inclusion.
Actually I like Inclusive Education and I like to understand and learn more about it. It is a universal strategy if I think so. I am very interested to participate some event/international conference if any. Please help me if possible.
Thank you so much.
Delower Hossain
Chief Coordinator
National Alliance of Disabled Peoples’ Organizations(NADPO)
24, Monipuripara, Sangshad Avenue, Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh
I am not aware of an international conference coming up on inclusion. If we hear of one we will post here. In the meantime you may want to take our Inclusion Basics Course and visit some of the Inclusion Basic Resources available on our website.
Inclusive schools are a HUGE disservice to all involved. I teach in a district that insists all LD children be put in inclusive classrooms. Here’s how it really works, folks: 27 Intensive students (ones who scored Level 1 on state testing) are placed in one room with a teacher and a co-teacher. Fifteen of those students are on IEPs. The co-teacher gets pulled at least once a week to sub or cover another class. Co-teachers get pulled to cover testing. Therefore , the help that was supposed to be provided does.not.happen. There is not enough time in a class period to address seventh grade students who do not even know how to read, let alone do work on grade level. We are talking basic phonemic awareness. And in math–seventh and eighth graders who do not know how to add and subtract, let alone know their times tables, are put in with other Intensive students; this is redundancy in extreme. Inclusive classes? A joke. Ask any teacher, not an administrator.
Thank you for viewing our website and for taking the time to voice your concerns. First, we’d like to address what we mean by effective inclusion. Inclusion is about all children belonging and participating, not just those with a label. Inclusive education means that students are educated in the general education classroom to the greatest extent appropriate and decisions are made on the basis of student needs. Inclusion does not mean 100% of the students 100% of the day unless that’s what appropriate for all the students at that school. Schools are always responsible to provide the full continuum of services based on students needs, so closing resource rooms or other support services and mandating that every child be placed in general education classrooms is just as unethical and ineffective as removing all Special Education students from general education classrooms. Student needs must drive appropriate instructional and behavioral support and require an objective student-centered staffing with a mindset of “shared-ownership” for all students.
With that said, we would like to address best practice with regard to in-class support for inclusive schools. Best practice dictates that up to one-third of the class may be students with disabilities since higher ratios approximate a special education classroom. You commented that there are 27 students with “intensive” needs in one classroom, 15 of those students with IEPs. That’s 50% of the class if all 15 students have a need for support in that content area. In addition, the rest of the class should mirror what a typical 7th grade at your school would look like. You stated that the rest of your class also has intensive needs. Is that what the other 7th grade classrooms at your school look like? You also noted that there is a teacher and co-teacher, but the co-teacher is regularly pulled out of class resulting in a lack of needed support. That is of concern to us, also. Formal co-teaching is a daily, semester-long or year-long commitment to a general education and special population teacher partnership for instructional design and delivery. If the decision of the ARD committee is to provide that level of in-class support to a student, schools must provide the level of support, as designated.
Based on the information you have given us, we certainly understand your concerns. There is definitely “good” inclusion and “bad” inclusion. However, there is substantial data to support the benefits of effective (“good”) inclusion, and we have received countless positive comments from teachers, parents, and students in addition to administrators. Many school practices contribute to success with inclusive education ranging from collaboration, instruction, in-class support, and instructional setting to peer and family relationships. We invite you view the “Client Spotlight” section of our website to hear about just a few success stories or our “Resource Library” to view more research on inclusion topics. Our network provides opportunities for educators and families around the world to build their knowledge of effective inclusion education. We invite you to not only view this information but also to share these helpful resources and information with the staff at your school including your school and district administration.
We sincerely hope this information has been helpful to you.
After reading the moderators comment I would like to withdraw my comment please! It sounds like my school is implementing inclusion in a poor, ineffective way and I would rather not share a comment with my little experience.
Laurie, with all due respect, it seems you’ve lost the love for teaching. I have been teaching for twenty years, in challenging settings such as those you describe and every year we make it work. While I definitely understand your level of frustration, calling on all teachers to agree with you isn’t fair to other teachers. It is disappointing that you feel those difficult students should be sent to another environment to further ostracize them from the group, rather than honing your skills to better accommodate them in your classroom. There are plentiful resources for teachers who truly desire to meet the needs of all the students in their classrooms and many of them free for the reading and incorporating. I, personally, would be willing to offer you some immediate methods to help include your struggling readers and ensure 100% active participation for all your students. Please feel free to reply if you are interested in the methods I use with great effectiveness daily–at the middle and high school levels.
I would like to get the methods you used
Hi Paula,
I work in an inclusive school in India and would love to know the methods you use and would appreciate if you guide me regarding the resources,books,frameworks etc regarding inclusion.
Thanks and Regards,
Preethi
Your comment hit the nail on the head! I am a first year teacher (7th grade science) and I’m mortified that this is going on in schools where parents assume their children are getting a chance at a good education! Inclusion lowers the bar for all the “intensive” students because teachers have to address the LD kids so often. I also see too many loopholes where IEP’s just allow a below level student to graduate every year to a higher grade when they have nowhere NEAR met the standards. Some of these kids aren’t completely LD and they learn to work the system and become a huge distraction when they realize they can basically do NO work and pass. The whole thing seriously makes me want to homeschool my kids.
I am relocating my family to Ireland and we are trying to decide on a location. I have noticed the schools in some counties are inclusive while others are not. My son is 5 and has specific language impairment and auditory processing difficulties. He is also a smart, bright and sociable boy. He absolutely needs a quiet and peaceful environment or he will not be able to follow. Presumably children with ADHD will also be in his class if he goes to an inclusive school. While I feel compassion for all children with disabilities my concern has to be for my child. Noisy disruptive behaviour by others will be more detrimental to my child than most. I’m concerned about it. What advice can you offer?
Kudos to you all for your contributions concerning inclusion. My own concern is that in some part of the world like the sub Saharan Africa, there are lacks of the necessary apparatus like qualified manpower and facilities in the regular schools let alone inclusive school, and as it has been confirmed that inclusion is a measure that bring positive result, is it still advisable to adopt inclusion under this ugly conditions?
Hi there…what we are looking for in our school are skills and strategies that we can use with the general ed peers to help include students that struggle with social skills into daily activities like lunch, recess, and informal conversation in the halls. How can we help those students reach out and make that our norm? Thanks!
My 16 year old daughter has a learning disability, she is in Year 10 and she does have school funding. Unfortunately she doesn’t like to be different and refuses help. They have placed her in mainstream class which is totally difficult for her. I have just discovered that they do have learning support classes which would be prefect for her, as she has friends in that class and it is a small class. The schools reasoning for not placing her in that class is due that the learning support class is for students that have no diagnosis. They believe that she is better being in the mainstream class as they feel that she will be able to obtain more support as she may be the only one that needs help and the teacher can devote more time to her as the other class has 20 students in that class that require support. I have been told that out of that 20 students only 8 children attend on a daily basis. They do have a special education unit for students that are below score of 70 cognitively, my daughter is borderline and refuses to attend that unit. At present she is not utilising her funding as she refuses help so her funding is used for others. My daughter has not attended school for 2 weeks, due to obviously finding the work difficult and feeling she does not fit in. I am unable to see the logic as there is an alternative option the learning support class. Why don’t they place an integration aid in that class which my daughter is entitled to and has funding for. That way the teacher will have an extra hand to help and my daughter will be happy to attend school. If she goes into the unit we will be in the same boat as then she will refuse to go to school. I have spoken to professionals and they are unable to see the logic of having a student in mainstream where obviously she is not happy and their is another class that is more suitable for her. Can someone shed some light on this, greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your interest in the Inclusive Schools Network. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for families and educators around the world to network and build their knowledge of inclusive education.
Inclusion is about all students belonging and participating. Every student is a general education student to the greatest extent appropriate with access to individualized instructional and personal supports, as needed. And, inclusive education means that decisions about student placement are based on their needs.
We have carefully read and reviewed the information you have given us about your daughter and understand your concerns. It is, as you will surely agree, impossible and unethical to make specific recommendations with a limited amount of knowledge about your daughter’s needs. However, there is a process that is aligned with effective inclusion that we recommend to schools and districts across the country regarding the appropriate placement of students with learning disabilities.
This step-by-step process is student-centered and based on individual student needs. Three basic questions must be addressed:
1. Where are the opportunities to address your daughter’s instructional goals in the general education classroom?
2. What level and type of instructional support, if any, will your daughter need in order to participate in the classroom? And, what level and type of personal support, if any, is needed in order to participate?
3. Who will provide the needed support and how will the school schedule staff to ensure that support is available when needed?
These are important questions that can only be answered with a clear understanding of your daughter’s needs. Too often schools have used the label of a student’s disability to determine placement. Inclusion moves us from labels and places to individualized supports and services based on student needs.
In the past, students who had difficulty in class, were often moved to other classrooms for support such as learning support classes, resource classes, or content mastery classes, but the number of students and the variety of needs were so great in these classrooms that instruction was neither effective nor targeted to address each student’s individual needs.
Inclusion supports the vision that services are portable and can be brought to the most natural environment for a student—typically, the general education classroom. Of course, instruction must be highly individualized with appropriate accommodations and modifications in place, as determined by the student’s individual needs.
That’s why in the process of effective inclusion, we always encourage teachers and parents to look for opportunities in the general education classroom to address the student’s goals, and then provide the necessary instruction and personnel to support student success.
We hope that sharing this process with you will be helpful. There are many informative resources regarding the effective placement of students with disabilities within an inclusive framework. The Inclusive Schools Network provides many helpful links to resources that should be helpful to you.
Your daughter has our sincere wishes for success this school year. It is our hope that she truly experiences an inclusive environment where she feels she belongs and can participate in school with success.
could you please suggest some schools providing inclusive education having an appropriate infrastructure?
Unfortunately, there is no way to compile a list of schools successfully practicing inclusion. We have created a list of questions and resources for you to use when looking at schools. Hopefully, this will help you! https://inclusiveschools.org/finding-an-effective-inclusive-school-questions-every-parent-should-ask/
Hi, I’m from South Africa. My son is now 6. He got Meningitis at the age of 3,5 years and was left with brain damage. He was perfectly normal before that. In SA, though the government states that all schools must be inclusive it is in fact not. They all feel it is too much work to have special needs kids in their schools. The problem is that there are very few special needs schools around and often a parent will have to travel far to reach the school. I have a wonderful private school around the corner from us, but they do not offer any special programs. I recently took my son to his old play school where there are still some kids that he knows. It really opened my eyes to the effect a different child has on the other kids. Though my son is not speaking at the moment he makes excited sounds and understands when we talk to him. He walks with assistance and sometimes alone. All the kids were very interested to know why he was different and even wanted to help him with activities. He loved the interaction. Is it so wrong to want my child to interact with all different types of children? It might even inspire him to try harder. Though he is probably not able to be in the same classroom as the mainstream kids, I do think there’s an opportunity for a special class with a few kids and a special needs teacher and facilitators. Even though they will be separate for their education they will be able to interact on the playground and at assembly etc. What is your experience in this type of environment?
I am a parent of an academically advanced child placed in a co-taught inclusive classroom. From the beginning of school my son has been complaining of distractions happening in this classroom that LD children create every day. There is no discipline in the class, LD children can have a fit in the middle of the class and they are not taken out of the classroom when it happens. All attention is on those kids. There is no way for my son to make a progress in this class and the school would not move him to another classroom. The inclusive environment benefits only LD kids, the others who meet or exceed school program are left behind.
Hi concerned parent.
I understand that your son may feel that he is not benefiting from being in an inclusive classroom. It could be that inclusive aspect is not implemented properly, however, inclusive education has no evidence of students without disabilities doing poorer on examinations. Lots of research has shown that inclusive classrooms benefit all students regardless of disability.
I would like to get more information on different etching strategies to be used in accommodating learners with learning disabilities in a foundation phase
what does behavioral support mean?And how can a teacher provide it?
Thanks for your question. Here is an article that should be helpful about positive behavioral supports. Please let us know if you have more questions! https://inclusiveschools.org/supporting-a-school-wide-system-of-positive-behavioral-supports/
Pls how do I site this article in my work? Thanks
You can just cite the author as Inclusive Schools Network. Thanks!