Development of Special Services

Initially as I read the passage, I automatically agreed with the assumption that all special needs students should be included in everyday classroom activities. However, as I thought about it I realized that it is not as black and white as it seems. That being said I am against the relative isolation of students with special needs as I feel it does not help severely disabled students learn or adapt to become self sufficient adults and would seriously damage students who were not severely disabled. However if I were to think logistically, having all the special needs students in one class makes it easier for non special needs teachers, training of teachers and paying teachers.

The next two steps, integration and inclusion, I believe are successful approaches to educate students with special needs. I believe that either step depends on the severity of the students needs. Including a mild or moderately disabled child into a regular classroom is absolutely the right move as long as there are resources set up in that classroom for that child, IE. teaching aid, computers, etc. Including child with severe needs into a regular classroom may benefit that particular child, but would it benefit the other children in the classroom, I believe that it will the hinder the learning of other students and that is not what we want. Therefore, it is my position that children with mild or moderate needs should be included into everyday classroom activities as long as there are resources for them and children with severe needs will only hinder the education of other students and therefore should be integrated at a time when they can handle the everyday classroom.