Discrimination; Handicap Identification;

Every child who enters the doors of the nation's school system deserves an education, including children with AIDS. Parents of AIDS-free children fear that the AIDS-infected child in the classroom threatens the health and safety of the general school community. But according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, casual contact with AIDS patients does not place others at risk of contracting the illness. A child with AIDS is considered handicapped and thus is entitled to all the legal rights that a handicapped student possesses. These rights include the right to receive a free and appropriate education with the same variety of programs and services that children without handicaps enjoy and placement in the least restrictive environment with nonhandicapped children (mainstreamed) whenever possible. According to the legal community, educators are in direct conflict with the nation's laws if they refuse to educate the AIDS afflicted child; therefore, teachers must comply. If educating, learning, and teaching the whole child--all children--is an educator's goal, then let educators take the initiative and accept the challenge. (14 reverences) (KM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. lir