The History of Inclusion in the United States

Introduction

Introduction Since the enactment of PL 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, the United States has undergone a profound transformation in its efforts to provide a “free and appropriate education” for school-age individuals with disabilities. The original legislation has been revised several times, most notably with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), passed in 1990. Further revisions of IDEA, combined with the extensive reach of the Americans with Disabilities Act (also passed in 1990), have contributed to today’s complex and ambitious approach to special education. As of 2002, there existed thirteen categories of disability recognized under federal law, and persons from birth through the age of 21 are entitled to a wide variety of educational programs and support services through public schools. Consequently, special education has become a significant and highly visible component of American education, directly or indirectly affecting the lives of virtually every student and teacher in the nation’s public education system. These developments have not occurred without debate, controversy , or struggle. Indeed, special education—even long before 1975—has drawn an enormous amount of attention, energy, and concern among educators, legislators, advocacy groups, parents, and other citizens. At the heart of this discussion lies the fundamental issue of just how special —or exclusive—the education of exceptional children should be. Since the 1800s, the question of whether children with disabilities should be taught alongside, or separate from, children not so identified has generated tremendous discussion—and heat. Such discussions have 1 followed the transition of the location of special education from families and institutions into the public schools, and from segregated to integrated settings within the schools themselves. The current framework for these conversations is situated in the term inclusion. The use, and hence meaning, of this term varies widely depending on the user, the context, and the purposes involved. Despite such confusion, inclusion without a doubt has become a primary focus of discourse involving special education policy and practice. It wields far-reaching repercussions on issues of school organization and administration ; classroom management; teacher recruitment, training, and retention; and especially on planning and implementing instruction for all students, not just those identified as disabled. In addition, its significant but often inconsistent, even confusing relationship to other terminology used extensively in special education, such as mainstreaming, normalization, integration, and full inclusion, makes any analysis of the history and significance of the concept as problematic as it is worthwhile . Consequently, an exploration of how this term has evolved over time, and how the very concept can, does, and most likely will affect special education now and in the future, is crucial to effective implementation of current legislation, policy, and practice as well as optimal development of the field itself. This book constitutes an attempt to understand more thoroughly and accurately what inclusion is, how it came to be, and where it might go. The widespread use of the term inclusion is actually a quite recent development in the long history of special education in the United States; this is perhaps surprising given its ubiquity and importance in current educational discourse. Even so, discussions and debates regarding this key idea in the field have always been topics of discussion in special education. Since the 1800s, when individuals with disabilities first were segregated in the public schools for instructional purposes, there have been consistent calls for closer contact of such children with their nondisabled peers and for their more equitable, “normal” treatment in instructional settings. Moreover, the closely related issues of who actually should be considered disabled, and who should ultimately bear responsibility for planning and providing their education, have been the subject of constant discussion and inquiry. Introduction 2 Of particular interest to the evolution of inclusion as an idea has been the expansion of its core questions into broader realms of thought and practice. In its earlier stages, the debate’s focus on the propriety of segregating or integrating children with disabilities in regular classroom settings was on the classroom itself: Do these children belong there; if not, why not; and if so, how can it be accomplished? By the late 1960s, however, the scope of the debate had begun to expand beyond individual classrooms and schools to include reconsiderations of the comprehensive structures of special education and of its relationship with general education. Within the past twenty years, the debate has included...