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In
the Mainstream but Isolated - Victoria Miresso
cannot button a shirt, match a sock or tell one school bus from another. Yet at
Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown, she is expected to function much
like any other sixth-grader, coping with class changes, algebra quizzes and
lunchroom bullies.
US
Child Expert Quits Britain Over Special Needs 'Crisis' -
"It was always my intention eventually to
return home to the United States, but I'm going years early because in all
conscience I can no longer participate in a corrupt and dysfunctional system
that is dishonest in its treatment and management of children with special
needs."
Inclusion News Summer 2006 - Inclusion News is a free publication that
goes to parents, family members, teachers, doctors and other professionals who
support children with special needs.
Inclusion news is
supported through the kindness of its subscribers, grants and endowments from
private donors.
Full
Inclusion: The New Reality Show - One of the most enduring (NOT
endearing) stereotypes about our community is the importance of "special"
everything when it comes to people with disabilities. While the original purpose
for the term "special" was to distinguish us from "pitiful," it never worked.
"Special" meant isolated, less than normal, separated for their own good, in
their best interest, etc. It also meant people who think they don't have a
disability could avoid us because we could live our whole lives in a haven that
became a disability ghetto.
Eli's Choice
- His parents fought for boy with Down syndrome to be in the
mainstream. As a teenager, he just wanted to be with his friends.
Learning-Disabled
Students Blossom in Blended Classes -
Jed was a new boy. His fourth grade had two full-time teachers and the
class was so well-organized, Jed moved smoothly from one task to the next.
When Ms. Jacobs asked how he liked it, Jed said he thought his teachers must
have a disability too, because they made it so easy to understand the work.
Inclusive
Schools Week 2005: December 5-9 - Great things happen in inclusive
schools. Inclusive schools are better prepared to bridge the achievement gap for
students of diverse abilities and backgrounds, because they integrate special
education supports into the curriculum and affirm students’ rich cultures. The
5th Annual National Inclusive Schools Week™ will be celebrated in schools,
classrooms, and communities December 5-9, 2005, with a special focus on the
achievement gap and strategies for improving educational outcomes for all
students. Free Celebration Kit now available!
Editorial:
'Special' Education Helps
All Students - The University of Cincinnati has just announced a plan to
offer free or drastically reduced tuition to teachers willing to enter the field
of special education. That's a cost savings and employment enhancement for
teachers, but the real winners in this package are students - and that's not
just children with special needs but regular education students as well.
Talking To Kids:
Mainstreaming Into Classrooms - The world is made up of many different
kinds of people. There are people with different skin colors, different
religions, different hairstyles, different accents, and different learning
abilities, just to name a few. Yet, despite all their differences, most people
somehow manage to work together successfully.
MI
Teacher Receives Award For Inclusion - No one
gets left out in Pam Morgan’s classroom. The Bird Elementary teacher was
recently awarded ‘Teacher of the Year’ by the Arc of Northwest Wayne County
because of the way she has promoted the concept of ‘inclusion’ in her
first-grade class of 23 students.
U.K.
Turning Point For Special
Needs? - The BBC's Mike Baker detects signs
of a change in the approach to children's learning difficulties: “We may
even be at another turning point: after almost 30 years of movement in one
direction, the pendulum could be about to swing back from inclusion towards
segregation.”
LA
Learning Together
- In the metro area, children in
special-education are increasingly moving into regular
classes. Once there, the children - those with special needs and those without -
are learning important lessons about life.
Everyone Together's Spring 2005 Newsletter is now available online
(PDF).
Everyone Together
is a coalition of parent networks across Michigan. We are wonderfully
diverse in location, ethnicity, race, culture, socio-economics and
ability/disability. We are enthusiastically united in our mission to
achieve an educational system that embraces Universal Education: a
Michigan Model for educating All Children, All together, All the time.
Project
Participate provides families, educators, administrators and therapists with
simple strategies to increase the active participation of students with
disabilities in school programs. Project Participate facilitates team
collaboration and promotes the appropriate uses of technology in the classroom.
Explore our site to see success stories and learn practical solutions to enhance
learning, teaching, and the full inclusion of students with disabilities in the
classroom. Download sample curricular adaptations, handouts for training,
intervention planning forms and more!
Everyone
Together (Michigan) - At an individual local network level we
seek to educate parents and increase their advocacy for inclusion of
children with disabilities in general education classrooms. As a group
of networks, we seek to support each other and to combine our voices
to advocate for the inclusion of all children who are routinely
separated and segregated based on disability. As a statewide coalition
of networks, we seek the fundamental changes to the education system
that are necessary if we are ever to achieve All Children, All
Together, All the Time. We seek to align ourselves with like-minded
organizations and to advocate for the adoption of policies,
legislation, and practices that support Universal Education. All
Children, All Together, All the Time. That is our mission.
PA
Pennsylvania Agrees to
Changes in Special Ed to Increase Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in
Regular Ed Classes - The state of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest
Law Center of Philadelphia have concluded an historic
settlement of litigation designed to change the quality of special education
services throughout the state. Pursuant to the agreement, the state will
change how it helps its 501 school districts comply
with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) and how it monitors that compliance.
The settlement is designed to increase the inclusion
of students with disabilities in regular education classes with non-disabled
students.
Inclusion at the
Heart of His School - Joe Petner, in his 15th
year as the principal of the Haggerty School in
Cambridge, is a pioneer of whole-school inclusion, which integrates children
with disabilities into all aspects of school life. In an interview with Globe
correspondent Ashley Pettus, Petner discusses the ingredients needed to make the
inclusive school ideal a reality.
Featured
Website:
Inclusion -
"Children who learn together, learn to live together." - This web site is
designed for general education teachers, special education teachers, parents,
and school staff to help provide some answers about how inclusive education can
be accomplished. Resources for making accommodations are included as well as
links to other web sites and resource lists for learning more about inclusive
education.
CA
Acceptance
Reigns Along With a King - David Mason crossed
his fingers and squeezed his eyes shut as he listened to the announcement that
confirmed his dream: This Culver City High School senior, an autistic youth
enrolled in the campus' special education program, was named homecoming king
after a landslide vote.
Legal Requirements and Court Cases in Support of Inclusion
- The most current language of the federal mandate concerning
inclusive education comes from the 1997 Amendments to the Individuals With
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These federal regulations include rulings
that guide the regulation. The IDEA requires that children with disabilities
be educated in regular education classrooms unless "the nature and severity
of the disability is such that education in the regular classes with the use
of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily." This
means that schools have a duty to try to include students with disabilities
in the regular general education classes.
Integrated at Last:
The Right to Belong, The Story of Yvonne
Featured Website:
The
Supportive Classroom - A Curriculum for
Creating Safe and Supportive Classroom Environments - Tested in 14 Vermont
Schools Kindergarten through Eighth Grade. "We believe
that all students need to be supported to feel good about themselves, to feel
good about school, and to feel that they belong. For belonging to occur,
students and their teachers must be supported, and opportunities created for
students to meaningfully participate and make friendships. For every student to
belong, teachers must strive to find a way to help all students to have power
and worth as individuals and as group members."
Her Passion: Care For Disabled - As she waited for her newborn child to
be brought to the nursery, Sylvia Kloc saw that all of the other mothers had
their babies already. She knew something must be wrong. Some months later, when
a doctor said her infant son, Steven, had Down syndrome and encouraged her to
put him in an institution, Kloc said she knew there was a better way.
PowerPoint Presentation:
Tools for
Getting Parents Involved in the Exceptional Education Process; Inclusion of
Students with Communications, Learning & Social Relating Disorders
Getting to Know Your
Classmates with Special Needs by Mary Ellen Leahy, Yale-New
Haven Teachers Institute - The primary objective of this unit is to
sensitize both students and teachers to special education students and
their needs and their rights. Many regular education students and
teachers have had limited contact with special education students.
The 2nd edition of
"Foundations for Inclusive Education" is now available at
www.tash.org.
U.S.
Denial of
Mainstreaming Rejected - In a ruling hailed as a victory for
disabled children, a federal judge has ruled that a 4-year-old child
with Down syndrome must be "mainstreamed" at the preschool level at
least temporarily and that, after an initial trial period,
Pennsylvania education officials must put the burden on the school
district to prove that a non-mainstream placement is more appropriate.
A Personal
Story - I knew that this day would
come. I just didn't know when. My son Sebastian (age 10) came home
from school today talking about how Lincoln helped free the slaves and
how Martin Luther King Jr. helped people of all races to realize his
dream of equality.
OR
And Inclusion For All
- On a chilly Saturday morning at Roosevelt High School, Michael
Remus replays a theme he has delivered throughout his career to 21
teachers gathered for a school improvement workshop: "If I walk into a
classroom and the kids are doing fractions," he says, pacing in front
of the teachers, "I want to know what the special education kids are
doing to learn fractions. The curriculum needs to be linked to
everybody."
Boy, Have They
Missed the Point! - Because I have IDEA reauthorization on my mind all of the time
these days, as I was driving away from the auditorium, all that I
could think was, “Boy, have our legislators missed the point!” Because
of IDEA ’97, Nicholas’ kind school staff now just naturally
understands why we work toward placement in the least restrictive
environment with age appropriate peers, give access to the curriculum,
and implement Positive Behavior Support concepts on a daily basis.
Inclusion, Advocacy & Self-Determination Websites
Segregated Learning Hurts Social Education
- What Amanda George wants most of all is to get
married and have babies. The trouble is that Amanda, although she
graduated from Fayetteville High School, was never really part of the
class of 2000. While she was learning basic academics, she missed out
on the social opportunities that teach youngsters how to make friends
and build relationships. That's where the "self-contained classroom"
concept of special education failed her, her mother believes. Even
though Amanda attended some regular classes, like physical education,
and ate lunch with her "typical" peers, she spent most of her time in
a classroom with other special education students and never enjoyed
the full extracurricular experience that is high school.
TN
Special Ed Battle:
Family Wins
Case, Seeks Legal Fees From Monongalia Schools
- Jim and Eleanor Green spend most of their evenings reading
legal documents -- time taken away from reading storybooks to their
two children. The couple, whose 8-year-old daughter, Julie, has Down
syndrome, is embroiled in a battle with the Monongalia County school
system. The battle has cost both parties a combined $170,000. And a
lot of time and energy. It started in spring 2002 when the Greens
disagreed with school officials, who attempted to increase Julie's
time out of the regular classroom at Mountainview Elementary from 21
percent to 60 percent. Officials said Julie (who is mildly mentally
retarded) needed a specialized environment to learn.
U.S.
School
Systems Move Toward Special Education Inclusion - Nationwide,
school systems are moving toward special education inclusion.
Inclusion means incorporating special education instruction in the
traditional classroom daily, instead of sending special-needs students
to other rooms to receive instruction.
TN
Special Ed Has No Place in Tennessee District
- There are no "special education" programs in
Williamson County, Tennessee. There are no self-contained special
education classrooms and no special education teachers. Instead,
students are taught at their grade level with the help of a "Student
Support Services" department that serves all students, whether they
qualify for special education services or not. If special help is
needed, there are "resource rooms" or "learning labs" that are used by
all students.
Meaningful Student Involvement: Guide to Inclusive School Change
(PDF) -
Check out
this POWERFUL new publication
(from SoundOut.org) that challenges students, teachers,
and community supporters to dream and do more in schools. In
this booklet author Adam Fletcher explains why "student voice" should
be better, and then details how that is happening in a lot of schools.
An inspiring read for students and educators everywhere!
Quick-Guides to
Inclusion 3:
Ideas for Educating Students with Disabilities
We hope this free e-book will provide you with a quick and
easy way to share important information about inclusion with your
colleagues! You can download the entire e-book or pick and choose
among the guides included in the e-book: Differentiated Instruction,
Literacy, Supporting Friendships, Self-Determination, High School
Classrooms, and Students Who Use Wheelchairs. Edited by Michael F. Giangreco, Ph. D
Parent Resource Sharing
-
A differentiated
classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, processing
or making sense of ideas, and developing products.
Click here for information on Differentiated Instruction.
-
Universal Design for
Learning (UDL) is a new paradigm for teaching, learning, and
assessment, drawing on new brain research and new media technologies
to respond to individual learner differences.
Click here to learn
more.
MI
Parents Work for Universal Education - Special-needs kids join
general classes with help of group. With a little help from his
friends, Trent Orginski, 12, rapped out his book report for his
seventh-grade classmates at Pathfinder School.
Don't Take Sides
on Inclusion - I am far more aware
than most that it really is possible to get inclusion right. I'm also
far more aware than most of just how wrong "inclusion" is when it's
not right. My child will no longer pay
a price for my ideology. He's paying a different price right now --
the price of being segregated from his non-disabled
peers. I get to live with the guilt of allowing this. Supporting it,
even.
Designing Personalized Learning for Every Student:
Activity Based
Assessment (ABA) Inventory and Other Forms - Today's students
are more diverse than ever before—in cultural backgrounds, learning
styles and interests, social and economic classes, and abilities and
disabilities. How can schools accommodate these differences while also
dealing with other demands for change, from the push for tougher
standards to the call for more discipline in the classroom? This book
offers answers—and challenges schools to reinvent themselves as more
flexible, creative learning communities that include and are
responsive to a full range of human diversity.
Institute on Community
Integration - "At the Institute, we believe that all persons
with developmental and other disabilities should live as valued
members of local communities. We seek to make this possible through
improving the services and social supports available to individuals
with disabilities and their families."
VA
Fairfax County Considers Closing Centers For Special Ed
- In Fairfax County, Virginia,
there are 20 special-education centers for middle school students who
have been classified as emotionally disturbed, learning disabled or
both. Segregating these students from the mainstream represents one
side of a national debate over special education. On the other side is
a growing effort to integrate them into regular classrooms, a practice
known as "inclusion."
MI
Everyone Together:
Local Group Promoting Inclusion -
Students with disabilities can learn from getting experience in a
traditional classroom setting, a speaker says.
An expert in educating children with disabilities told a crowd
of teachers, parents and therapists Wednesday that just because a
child has different academic needs doesn't mean he needs to be
sheltered from other students.
Inclusion Aids Students With
Special Needs - Being part of a school boosts success, expert and teens
say. Twenty years ago, high school students with special needs would have been
placed in separate classrooms, with limited interaction with other kids. Today,
Kelly Kaser, a 19-year-old Carmel student with Down syndrome, has a totally
different experience.
TASH: Q & A about Inclusive
Education - click here.
The Access Center
- Improving Outcomes for All Students K-8. Enhancing access to the
general education curriculum for students with disabilities.
CAST: A not-for-profit organization
that uses technology to expand opportunities for all people,
especially those with disabilities.
Inclusion is Not a
Place, It is a Feeling - I am a person with disabilities
and when I say "my friends" I mean friends, real friends just like
everyone else, I have friends. Most of you think all people have
friends but for people with disabilities friends are not always
real. I want you to know why I have friends.
Meeting Special Needs:
An emotional
school-choice battle - Segregated or
mainstream?
A description of Inclusion
Policy under State and Federal Law from the Pennsylvania
Department of Education can be found at:
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/k12/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=67483 -
excerpt: "Special education is a service, not a place. The
purpose of special education parallels the purpose of elementary
and secondary education as a whole: to prepare children to lead
productive independent lives as citizens and members of an adult
community. Exceptional students often need exceptional
interventions, so that they may eventually lead productive lives
to the greatest extent possible."
Listserv Dedicated to Inclusion: The
kidstogether list focuses exclusively on inclusive education and
communities. More information can be found at
www.kidstogether.org.
CA
L.A. Unified to Keep 16
Schools Segregated for Special Education -
Ruling: The decision by a federal judge was prompted by
parents' opposition to integration.
Voice of Experience: Learn why teacher Janice Robertson looks
forward to integrating special-needs students into her classroom
lessons. [source]
Should Inclusion Include Every
Student? Read
Differing Views on a controversial topic.
Kids Together, Inc.
- All children with disabilities are to be educated to the
"maximum extent" with children who do not have disabilities.
-Federal Law I.D.E.A. Sec. 612.5 (A)
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