Mainstreaming in Public Schools

Effects on Disabled and Non-disabled Children

Now often referred to as inclusion, mainstreaming as a goal has been widely adopted across the United States.

What Is Mainstreaming?

Mainstreaming in the public school setting refers to the process by which children with varying levels of disabilities are placed in classroom settings with typically developing, non-disabled peers. Now often referred to as inclusion, mainstreaming as a goal has been widely adopted across the United States. Disabilities may include physical impairments such as blindness, cerebral palsy or deafness or they may be behavioral disorders such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Much of the initial impetus behind the growth of inclusion policies came from families of children with disabilities who feared that segregating their child in special education classrooms would be more harmful socially and academically than allowing their child to participate in the regular classroom.

Why Mainstream?

Now, mainstreaming has become a federal mandate designed to avoid automatically placing children in special classes and separating them from their non-disabled peers. The Americans with Disabilities Act has furthered the movement towards mainstreaming as courts of law have ruled that non-inclusive settings have violated the civil rights of disabled children. Policymakers and administrators are thus implementing changes towards inclusive classrooms (also referred to as the least restrictive environment) around the nation. According to the US Department of Education at least 47% of all public school children with disabilities are in some form of inclusive setting.

Benefits

Disabled children benefit from interacting with typically developing peers. Studies have shown that on standardized tests, disabled children in regular classrooms perform as well as those in special education classes and their classroom behavior is improved. Other research has shown that the parents of disabled children in inclusive settings benefit as well. They have generally positive attitudes about their child's educational experience and these positive feelings increase over time.

What about the effects of inclusion on typically developing children? Overall, the studies in this area do not show a negative effect on the academic success or behavior of the non-disabled child in the inclusion classroom. In well-run classrooms, which include students with only mild disabilities, the typically developing child achieves as well as or better than a comparable child in a non-inclusion setting. This may be because of the methods teachers must use in an inclusion classroom such as small group instruction which benefit all students in the classroom. A few small studies have shown that even with a severely disabled child in the classroom or small group, the academic work of the non-disabled student is not negatively affected. Other research has confirmed that typically developing children do not slow their development or adopt the inappropriate, disruptive behavior of some disabled children in their classroom. In some cases, exposure to a disabled child in their classroom may lead non-disabled children to be more sensitive to the needs and differences of disabled children.

Concerns

Despite some of the research indicating the need for and positive aspects of mainstreaming, many teachers, parents and policymakers have concerns about inclusion classrooms. There remain some unanswered questions and conflicting research studies. Teachers have been concerned that they may not have the knowledge or supports necessary to deal with severely disabled children. Without adequate supports in place, teaching all the children effectively becomes impossible. The larger class size of the regular classroom versus special education classrooms may also make teaching varying levels of behaviorally disturbed children more difficult. Teachers without formal training in special education may need special training to equip them for the rigors of teaching children who have diverse special needs. Teachers may wonder which disabled children are best suited for inclusion as it is not clear that every disabled student can benefit from mainstreaming.