6 Best Practices for Mainstreaming Students With

Special NeedsBy Angie Stevens on behalf of Reading Horizons

1. Use resources to help improve the instruction of all students.“In the book that I just finished on inclusive schools, there are several things that emerge from these schools that I think other schools can do. Number one, they look at their resources as in a sense all being devoted to improving the instructional program for all kids. They don't look at the special ed budget or the bilingual budget. There is a budget for the schools, and the schools use those resources effectively.” – Thomas Hehir

2. Value students with disabilities, value the inclusion of children with disabilities.It is difficult for any initiative to be effective if the participants are not on board. Mainstreaming special needs students is not going to be beneficial if the principals and teachers don’t see the value of creating inclusion classrooms for these students. This will only create a negative environment for these students.

3. Train teachers to deal with the special needs population.Teachers need to know how to deal with the behavioral and emotional challenges they are faced with every day in their classrooms. Whether that training comes from the parents of the children in their classrooms, school counselors, school psychologists, or outside consultants – they need to know what to do in difficult situations.

4. Have teachers work together to solve problems created by inclusion.“So even if she had the best training, I would also want to see her having more support as it related to kids who had challenges in her classrooms. Again, one of the things that the schools that I've done research in that are highly effective, teachers don't teach alone in these schools. They have other teachers that they work with, that they can problem-solve with, that they can figure out what to do with these kids.” – Thomas Hehir

5. Assign special needs students to experienced teachers.Since teachers rarely receive formal training for working with special needs students, undoubtedly, it is a better to assign these students to experienced teachers that have dealt with the issues that these students can bring to the classroom. Brand new teachers should not be assigned more than a few special needs students as they are being acclimated to the profession.

6. Do not segregate students in prior grades.If special needs students are going to attend mainstream classrooms, they need to do so at every grade level. You cannot expect them to suddenly adjust because they are in a higher grade.

“But one of the things that we found in this study was that - and this is from the teacher interviews, and this is very deeply felt by the teachers. When they have figured out how to effectively educate kids who have various types of academic and behavioral challenges in typical classrooms, they feel that their classrooms are better for all kids.” – Thomas Hehir

For the full article and link to the NPR interview of Thomas Hehir (from which his quotes were taken,) visit

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2012/05/10/integrating-special-needs-students-in-mainstream-classrooms-best-practices