Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312160093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
But some educators and others say a policy of inclusion offers children with special needs their best opportunity to learn.
"Inclusion means for us belonging, friendships, working together, responsibilities, getting along, respecting differences and celebrating diversity," said Susan Lagos, principal of the Grant Early Childhood Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
But Shanker said teachers and all children - special education or not - pay the price when children who are ill or who suffer disruptive behavior disorders are placed in the classroom. He called for a moratorium to stop the "helter-skelter, even tumultuous rush toward full inclusion."
The policy "places children who cannot function into an environment which doesn't help them and often detracts from the education process for all students," he said.
Shanker said school districts are using inclusion as a budget-cutting device. Teachers are not adequately trained, he said, and the special services these children need are no longer available.
The Education Department reported in November that 34 percent of the 4.7 million children with disabilities were in regular classrooms in 1990-91. About 35 percent used resource rooms, 25 percent were in separate classes and 5 percent were in separate schools. The remainder were in residential facilities, homebound or hospitalized.
"We continue to believe that all children can learn to higher academic standards; and for many disabled students, that can be accomplished in the regular classroom," Education Secretary Richard Riley said. "We do not advocate a `one size fits all' approach in making decisions about how students should be educated."
Andrew Stamp, spokesman for the National Association of State Boards of Education, said he had trouble understanding why Shanker linked disruptive behavior to special-needs students. "The majority of the kids creating the problems are not in special ed," he said.
The AFT said inclusion is being implemented at some level in almost every state, and that many states are moving aggressively to put the policy into place.
Karen Draper said her 10-year-old son, Preston, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, has "been learning beyond our wildest hopes and dreams" since he was integrated into a regular classroom at Myersville Elementary School in Frederick County, Md.
JoAnne Evans, national president of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders, has a 13-year-old seventh-grader with attention deficit disorder who has been in a regular classroom throughout his schooling.
"He's been very successful, and I don't see a need for anything else," she said.
But Evans said her younger son, 11 and in fifth grade, "is very challenged by not only ATT, but also by a profound learning disability. For him, the regular classroom is very unsuccessful."
Evans said deciding how a child should be educated must be made on an individual basis.
by CNB