An Exploratory Study of the Rate of Academic Engagement and Social Skills for Children with Emotional Disturbances Within the Resource Room, Inclusion Setting, and the General Education Classroom

In the last several decades the field of education has moved from educating special education students in separate or self-contained classrooms to more inclusive settings. For students with mild disabilities inclusion settings have shown to be effective. However, for students with emotional disturbances (ED) there is little or no evidence regarding their academic or social success within inclusive settings (MacMillan, Gresham, & Forness, 1996). The key focus of the current study is to examine the academic engagement time and social skills of two students with ED within the resource room, inclusion setting, and the general education setting without special education services. It was hypothesized that students with ED would exhibit the highest level of academic engagement and social interaction within the resource room. Results indicated that the resource room provided the highest level of academic engagement, but provided the least opportunity for social interaction. Implications and recommendations for future research of the current findings were discussed