First, it is necessary to define what inclusion is. An inclusive school or classroom educates all students in the mainstream. This means that all students, including students with learning and physical disabilities, at-risk, homeless, and gifted are included in integrated, general education classes. It also means providing all students within the mainstream: 1.) appropriate educational experiences that are challenging yet geared to their capabilities and needs, and 2.) any support and assistance they or their teachers require. (Stainback, 1992) Inclusive education suggests the restructuring of special education to permit all or most students to be integrated in mainstream classrooms through reorganization and instructional innovations. It suggests the redesign of the traditional special education service deliver

The most important reason for including all students into the mainstream is that it is the fair, ethical, and equitable thing to do. It deals with the value of equality. As was decided in the Brown versus Board of Education decision, separate is not equal. It is discriminatory that some students, such as those labeled disabled, must earn the right or be gotten ready to be in general education mainstream or have to wait for educational researchers to prove that they can profit from the mainstream, whereas other students are allowed unrestricted access simply because they have no label. No one should have to pass anyone’s test or prove anything in a research study to live and learn in the mainstream of school and community life. It is a basic right, not something one has to earn. (Stainback, 1992)

Regular class students benefit from association with their special peers. The inclusion of handicapped individuals in school activities is a realistic introduction to American society. Regular class students learn about those different from themselves and have the opportunity to learn that the differences are unimportant. (Lewis & Doorlag, 1991)

Teachers will also need training for teaching in inclusive classroom settings. And even after they have had training, assistance will be needed because of the diversity of this type of classroom. While the disabled students will be able to participate in classroom activities and such, these students might still need the individualized attention that would be given in a special education program. For this reason, special education teachers might need to be in a classroom with a regular teacher in an inclusive setting.

There are also critics of full inclusion. Among some of these are researchers, teachers, and parents of both regular and disabled students. Some oppose inclusion because difficulties may occur in the mainstreaming process. Regular teachers who have little experience with special students may be reluctant to participate. Students, both regular class and special, and their parents may be apprehensive. These problems are exacerbated when financial and personnel resources are reduced; there may be fewer services for special students and less assistance to teachers of mainstreamed classrooms. (Lewis & Doorlag, 1991)

Advocates of inclusion stress that it benefits all that are involved. Not only do the disabled students benefit, but the regular students, teachers and special education teachers also benefit. Inclusion has been advocated as the means to insure that schools educate all students in the mainstream where ‘everyone belongs, is accepted, supports, and is supported by his or her peers and other members of the school community’. (Clark, Dyson & Millward, 1995)

Special students remain with their peers; they are not segregated from the normal activities of the school. Labeling is de-emphasized. Resource room services have aided in decreasing the stigma attached to special services because resource teachers often serve students with many different types of special needs. Research indicates that handicapped students can achieve academic success in mainstreamed classrooms; success is most likely when regular education instruction is individualized and when resource room support is

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