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."
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 (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.
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
