Making Inclusion Work

In the late 1970s there was approximately 1 million kids with special needs that did not attend school. If the students did attend they were either in a special class or a special school. Special Education changed with the passing of the 1975 Individuals with disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the amendments in 1997. This act move special needs students from segregated classrooms into regular classrooms. When students are in a segregated classroom they do not learn how to live in a non - disabled world. Since the act in 1975 there has been confusion on how to educate special and general education students. The parents and advocators were scared that they would lose there services and the teachers did not think it would work.
Some of the advantages of Inclusion is that it improves the learning for both disabled and non-disabled students. The children learn that everyone is different, they develop new friendships, parent participation improves and it is the disables right to be in the least restricted environment possible.
The downside to inclusion is that more research should be done to discover how to teach the disabled with the general education students. The teachers are not trained as well as they should be to teach children with special needs. They also need to figure out how to teach all the students at once without all of the disturbances. Once all of these things can be meet then Inclusion should work.