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Appendix G: Six Guidelines for Inclusive Programs
- Parental involvement is an essential component of effective inclusive schooling. From a variety of participant perspectives and methods, the active involvement of committed parents emerges repeatedly, whether the report is directly about parent perceptions (e.g., Erwin & Soodak, 1995; Ryndak, et al., 1995) or parents are identified by others as key participants (e.g., Staub et al., 1994; York-Barr, et al., 1996).
- Students with severe disabilities can achieve positive academic and learning outcomes in inclusive settings. Studies on parental perception (Ryndak, et al., 1995) and general education teacher perceptions (Giangreco & Dennis, et al., 1993), as well as empirical documentation through experimental investigation (Hunt & Staub, et al., 1994), suggest that students with severe disabilities are able to learn new skills in regular classrooms.
- Students with severe disabilities realize acceptance, interactions, and friendships in inclusive settings. Parents report acceptance and belonging as a major positive inclusion outcome (Erwin & Soodak, 1995; Ryndak, et al., 1995). Further, there is evidence that more opportunities for interaction occur through IEPs written for students in inclusive classrooms (Hunt & Farron-Davis, et al.,1994), that more reciprocal interactions among students with and without disabilities and larger friendship networks can occur in inclusive settings (Fryxell & Kennedy, 1995; Hunt & Alwell, et al., 1996) and that meaningful friendships occur for students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms (Staub, et al., 1994).
- Students without disabilities experience positive outcomes when students with severe disabilities are their classmates. Positive outcomes have been perceived by parents of non-disabled students (Giangreco & Edelman, et al., 1993) and reflected in reports of no differences in educational achievement measures for peers who had a classmate with a disability and those who did not (Sharpe, et al., 1994), as well as in reports of no differences in time engaged in instruction for groups of students with and without a classmate having a severe disability (Hollowood, et al., 1994).
- Collaborative efforts among school personnel are essential to achieving successful inclusive schools. Multiple investigators working with differing participant groups ranging from parents to classroom personnel to systems-level personnel addressed the role of collaborative team practice in achieving effective inclusion outcomes for students at systems, building, and classroom levels (Giangreco & Dennis, et al., 1993; Salisbury, et al., 1993; York-Barr, et al., 1996).
- Curricular adaptations are a vital component in effective inclusion efforts. Curricular adaptations have been recognized by participants in a building-wide inclusive schooling effort (Salisbury, et al., 1993), by general educators reporting their own "transformational" experiences in inclusive classrooms (Giangreco & Dennis, et al., 1993), and by investigators designing an effective social support package for students with disabilities to be implemented by the general education classroom staff (Hunt, et al., 1996).
Hunt, P. & Goetz, L. (1997). Research on inclusive educational programs, practices, and outcomes for students with severe disabilities. The Journal of Special Education, 31(1).
