The purpose of this paper is to discuss "mainstreaming," a theory and its implementation regarding the integration of the handicapped into the regular classroom environment. Further, the laws and curriculum surrounding mainstreaming will be reviewed and the role of teachers and students will be analyzed along with mainstreaming's advantages and disadvantages.
The passage of Public Law 94-142, signed into law by President Gerald Ford on November 25, 1975, which has as its overriding goal, an education for all handicapped children and youth, has been termed one of the few occasions wherein modern professional ideologies and technologies have been codified into federal law and thus into a national policy (Michaelis, 1980, p. ix). The result of four years of legislative battle, its sweeping realignments has underscored the pressing need for new guidelines in the responsibility of America's primary-secondary educational system to handicapped citizens and their parents.
The regulations specified for P.L. 94-142 in the Federal Register, 1977, p. 42474, are as follows:
(1) To assure that all handicapped children have available to them a free appropriate public education;
(2) To assure that the rights of handicapped children and their parents are protected;
(3) To assist states and localities in providing for the education of handicapped children; and
(4) To assess and assure the effectiveness of efforts to educate such children (Michaelis, 1980, p. 7).
Further, the law requires that the state provide each child with an education and other related services, such as counseling, therapy, recreation, transportation and medical evaluation at public expense, and under supervision and direction without charge (Michaelis, 1980, p. 7).
In the past, much of the legislation on behalf of the handicapped has been dissipated by the lack of both an organized advocacy group and financial support. The mix of professionals an...