Special Ed & Full-Inclusion Policy

The limits of debate regarding IDEA are set forth by Britton with a view toward showing that public policies emanating from the law, perceived as advocacy for those whose physical, mental, or emotional disabilities demonstrate a need for special beneficial educational treatment, appear to be subject to interpretation of legal meaning or intent.

Perhaps in response to court activity and political activity on the part of advocacy groups, and after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1973, Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-124), recently changed to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Its intent was to guarantee a "publicsupported" education for every school-age child in the "least restrictive environment" regardless of the nature or degree of their disability. . . .

[C]ontroversy developed concerning the actual setting in which these children may be served; what should be the "least restrictive environment"'> Special-education schools for the severely handicapped and special day cla

. . .
fferent view is that under IDEA public schools are obliged to either develop or pay for programs and practices that will meet a variety of specialeducation needs (Foster, 1992; Fernandez, 1993). In the 1990s, the judicial and regulatory environment appears to have increasingly favored full inclusion, in part based on a body of research showing the superiority of mainstreaming to segregation as a matter of educational policy, in regard to both instructional and social development (Diamond, Hestenes, & O'Connor, 1994; Peck, Carlson, & Helmstetter, 1992). According to IDEA, full inclusion is more to be preferred than the partial inclusion of mainstreaming or segregation. IDEA mandates that "to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities . . . are educated with children who are not disabled,, and that special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be attained satisfactorily" (IDEA, 1975, amended in 1991). In recent years, implementation of IDEA's policy goals has varied in the legal system and has
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Approximate Word count = 2468
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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