I was recently doing research on my states (Illinois) schools, and found it interesting that only 36.4 percent of the special ed students are mainstreamed, included or whatever at least 80 percent of their day. I don’t know know if this is a good thing or a bad thing for most people. What I do know is that my son who is in a self-contained LD classroom has learned more in this 1 year then he did in 3 years of inclusion. My oldest son has a 50/50 split. Three of his classes are for LD students, the rest he is mainstreamed. He too has shown more improvement in the LD setting then he did in the mainstream with services. Just curious what experience others have had with this.
Re: How does your state compare?
We have more probably have 80% of our students included for 80% or more of the day. I agree with you, if you want your child taught, get special ed, of you want maintenance and accomodating, get inclusion. However, many times general ed. for most of the day is the right thing.
Re: How does your state compare?
I must admit at first I wanted my son fully included because I thought that was what was best but he is one that has benefited from a contained classroom. Tonight he reconfirmed what I thought, he is learning. We read “together” a 3 rd grade book (grade level). It took him 37 minutes to read 10 pages but he read 75 percent of it by himself and had good comprehension of the story. At the begining of the year he was reading at a pre-K level. This may not seem like much too many but I was very proud of him.
I do not have any statistics, but my son is mainstreamed in middle school except for 1 hour per day, and he is progressing nicely in the mainstream with accomodations, and major work on my part at home. Without guidance at home he would have done poorly in some classes, and the ones with gifted teachers would have seen him through successfully whether I took an interest or not. Sadly there are some teachers that I feel do not understand my son’s disability, probably think that he is just lazy, and it is all nonsense anyway (afterall he breathes, he walks and he talks ok).