Addressing the challenges of inclusion of children with disabilities

ABSTRACT: Reform of regular and special education continues to forge ahead although little is known about outcomes for children with disabilities in schools engaged in restructuring. While debates about the inclusion of these students continue, little consensus exists on various aspects of the moiement. This article offers a discussion of collaborations between a University and local school districts in its catchment area. It begins with a discussion of challenges associated with inclusive programming including research, philosophical, political, logistical, and policy issues. The authors end with a description of an inclusion program and research project that evolved from the University/school district collaborations. SCHOOL REFORM INITIATIVES are not novel, as myriad reform efforts characterize regular and special education practices (Sailor, 1991). In large part, regular and special education reform movements have paralleled each other (McLaughlin & Warren, 1992). When schools engage in general education restructuring, little is known about outcomes for children with disabilities in those schools or to what extent these children are included with their peers without disabilities. The inclusion of children with disabilities in general education settings, however, has prompted numerous debates and discussions (i.e., see Skrtic, 1991). At the very least, these often heated discourses underscore our inability to reach consensus on various aspects of the inclusion argument. Little agreement exists on the most efficient and effective methods and settings for meeting the needs of children with disabilities. Even the movement’s name has not enjoyed profes-sional consensus. For example, the Regular Education Initiative has evolved into what is being referred to as ’inclusion,&dquo; &dquo;inclusive schooling,&dquo; &dquo;inclusive education,&dquo; and &dquo;pro-gressive education&dquo; emerged from the main