Inclusive education is defined as disabled and non-disabled children and young people learning together in ordinary pre-school provision, schools, colleges and universities, with appropriate networks of support (Miller & Katz, 2002). Today, inclusion is a substantial element of educational policy and practice; and a great deal of current legislation supports the concept (Hines, 2001). Indeed, in some cases, schools have been warned and/or prosecuted for failure to comply (See: Karlin, Albany Times Union Newspaper, March 15, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to examine current views and current research on inclusion in the American public school system. Conclusions are then formulated on the basis of the reviewed material.
Regarding current thought on inclusion, Miller and Katz (2002) note that one contemporary perspective associates inclusion with integration, stating that inclusion is but an expansion of the general concept of integration. In this view, inclusion is characterized as part of the overall educational effort to increase participation and decrease segregation which is broadly defined as a division of students based on difference. In this sense inclusion and segregation are not fixed states or educational placements. Schools and school districts are seen as continually working towards inclusion and resisting segregation.
However, other educators are uncomfortable with this view. For example, Moore and Gilbreath (2002) state that inclusion is quite different both from the concept of integration and even from the foundational concept of inclusion which is said to be "mainstreaming" which was the notion that disabled students should be educated in the least restrictive environment. It was the mainstreaming concept that originally was used to bring students with special education needs into general classrooms. In this regard, Moore and Gilbreath point out that while mainstreaming brought disabled students into the...