Presentation to 1st and 2nd year general education teachers to help them understand the term inclusion, and discussion of strategies to help facilitate successful inclusive environments

1. Presented by Dr. Alicia Brophy

2. “I have come to frightening conclusion that, I am
the decisive element in the classroom. It is my
personal approach that creates the climate. It is
my daily mood that makes the weather. As a
teacher I possess tremendous power to make a
child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of
torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can
humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations
it is my response that decides whether a crisis will
be escalated or de-escalated, and a child
humanized or de-humanized.”

3. 1.All individuals are capable of learning.
2.The teaching talent to help all
students learn according to their
potential exists in most schools today.
3.The knowledge gap between what is
known about effective teaching and
what routinely is practiced in
classrooms is enormous.
4.All students need a safe, caring, and
positive learning environment.

4.  Be able to define inclusion and related terms
◦ What is inclusion? (inclusion vs. full inclusion)
◦ What is mainstreaming?
 Gain an understanding of Federal Law with
regard to inclusion and its history
 Identify characteristics that have been
identified as important to and supportive of
inclusion
 Identify strategies that can be used to support
students within an inclusive classroom

5.  Please take a moment to complete the K part
of the KL chart provided
K (What you know) L (What you learned)

6.  Has anyone in this room taught in an
inclusive classroom before?
 Students taught in this type of
classroom environment?

7.  Inclusion is a term that describes the ideology
that each child should be educated in the
general education environment in the school
that they would regularly attend, to the
maximum extent possible.
 It involves providing the support services to
the student rather than bringing the student
to the services, and requires that the student
will benefit from being in the class rather
than having to keep pace with other students.

8.  Full inclusion is the belief that technological
supports and instructional practices are
currently available to provide
accommodations to all students, regardless
of whether or not they have a disability, in the
classrooms and schools they would regularly
attend.

9.  This term refers to the selective placement of
students with disabilities in one or more
general education classes.
 The idea is that students will be “set up for
success.”
 It is assumed that in order for a student to be
successfully mainstreamed, they must posses
the ability to keep pace with their general
education peers both academically and
socially.

10.  The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
(as amended in 2004), does not require
inclusion. Rather, the law states that children
with disabilities should be educated in the
"least restrictive environment.”
 IDEA stipulates that the process for
determining the "least restrictive
environment" should begin with placement in
the general education classroom.

11.  IDEA does recognize that it is not
appropriate to place all children in the
general education classroom.
◦ School districts should have a “continuum of
placements” available, extending from the
regular education classroom to residential
settings, in order to accommodate the
needs of all children with disabilities.

13. ◦ Use of the “continuum of placements”
concept makes it more probable that each
child will be appropriately placed in an
environment that is specifically suited to
meet their needs.
◦ The degree of inclusion should derive from
what the student needs (as determined by
the IEP team), not by the parents’ desires or
school district’s convenience.

15.  Section 504 is significant in the legal mandate of
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) and the use
of supplementary aids and services for students
with disabilities because it was used to ensure
nondiscrimination on the basis of disability.
 Because the categories of disabilities covered by
the IDEA have expanded during the past two
reauthorizations in 1997 and 2004, Section 504
is used less often to provide access to public
education for students with disabilities.

16.  Oberti v. Clementon (1993)
◦ The Federal Court upheld the right of
students with disabilities to be
educated with their nondisabled peers
in general education classrooms. This
judicial decision required that school
districts need to provide an
explanation as to why students with
disabilities are educated in separate
settings and why this placement is the
best option for said students.
(Baker, Wang, & Walberg, 1995)

17.  Board of Education v. Holland (1992, 1994)
◦ The 9th Circuit District Court defined LRE as a strong
Congressional preference. This opinion combined
factors from several previous decisions to determine
what the least restrictive environment is. Those
factors dealt with educational benefits in a regular
classroom; non-academic benefits for the handicapped
child in a regular classroom; the child's effect on the
teacher and other child in the regular class; and the
cost of supplementary aids and service to mainstream
the handicapped child. The Court said cost is only a
factor if it will significantly affect another child in the
district.

18.  Hartmann v. Loudoun County Board of
Education (1996)
◦ A Virginia federal district court ruled that a
nonverbal student with autism should attend a
regular education second grade class with
appropriate supplemental aids and services.
However, when the case was appealed, the 4th
Circuit Court concluded that the inclusion efforts
were sufficient with staff training and help on
behavior issues, reduced class size, and class
composed of independent workers.

19.  Cedar Rapids Community School District v.
Garret F. (1999)
◦ The Supreme Court ruled that taxpayer-supported
schools are responsible for the costs of providing
continual care for disabled students under a federal
law that says all children must receive
"free, appropriate public education." Under the
Court's reading of the IDEA's relevant
provisions, medical treatments such as
suctioning, ventilator checks, catheterization, and
others which can be administered by non-physician
personnel come within the parameters of the
special education law's related services.

21.  Cooperative Learning Experiences
◦ Think-Pair-Share
◦ Peer Tutoring
◦ Small, cooperative learning groups
 Philosophical Orientation Defines Special
Education as a Service, Not a Place
 Provision of Adaptations and Support
◦ Only as needed
◦ Follow accommodations and support that is
expressed in a student’s IEP paperwork

22.  Inquiry-Based Learning Experiences
 Classroom is Student-Centered and has a
Collaborative Learning Environment
◦ Identification of students’ strengths and areas of
need
◦ Students have mutual respect within the learning
environment
◦ Students help to create the classroom rules and are
expected to follow them
◦ Students have a responsibility for developing their
community

23.  Teachers Teaching Teachers
◦ Collaboration between general education and
special education teachers is required.
◦ RTI
◦ Strategies for increasing consultation time
◦ Collaborative consultation
◦ Assistance teams
◦ Coaching
◦ Peer collaboration
◦ Cooperative teaching
◦ Communication skills for collaboration

24.  Parent Teacher Collaboration
◦ Establish cooperation
◦ Develop culturally responsive
relationships
◦ Parent-teacher conferences
◦ Parents as teachers

25.  Focus on time for learning
 Ensure high rates of student
success
 Provide positive and supportive
learning environments
 Plan and maintain a motivational
environment

26.  Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
 High Quality Inclusion in a Diverse Society
 Positive Behavior Support
 Tiered Models in Early Intervention

27.  An educational framework based on
research in the learning sciences
that guides development of flexible
learning environments that
accommodates individual learning
differences

28.  Since the way individuals learn can be unique, the
UDL framework, first defined by the Center for
Applied Special Technology (CAST) in the
1990s, calls for initially creating curriculum that
provides:
 Multiple means of representation to give learners
numerous ways of acquiring information and
knowledge
 Multiple means of expression to provide learners
alternatives for demonstrating what they know
 Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners'
interests, challenge them appropriately, and
motivate them to learn

29. Primary or Core
Universal instruction for all students to promote
behavior and reading achievement
Secondary or Supplemental
Targeted small group or individual instruction for
students who need additional support or assistance to
successfully learn to learn to read
Tertiary or Intensive
Individualized or small group, intense, specialized
instruction for students who despite previous instruction
and intervention efforts experience marked difficulties in
learning to read

30.  IDEA 2004 addresses the use of RTI
◦ Created the option of using up to 15% of
federal special education funds for “early
intervention”
 for students not been identified for special
education
 For students who need academic or
behavioral support to succeed in general
education
◦ IDEA funds
 Professional development
 Scientifically-based literacy programs and
assessments
 Support services

31.  Please take a moment to complete the L part
of the KL chart provided
K (What you know) L (What you learned)