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Are You Segregating Your
Special Education Students in
Your District or Building?
By Thomas M. D’Elia, Director of Operations/Chief Talent Officer, Belleville
Public Schools
Chances are you conflicting views of school or district This is especially true for students with
immediately answered models of inclusion that impact disabilities. However, this inclusive
movement did not begin by organic,
inclusive environments, offering a
an emphatic “NO” to the critical lens to compare your current natural feelings towards inclusion, but
state of inclusionary practices. rather legal doctrine that held districts
title of this article. However, responsible for not following the
depending on what kind of an Revisiting Special Education: prescribed laws. Inclusive movements
inclusion model you are currently Are you treating the child or may have come a long way, but did
using in your building or district, you the disability? you ever stop and think if your inclusion
may unknowingly be segregating programs and the environments that
your special education students, and It is safe to say that educational exist in your school or district are
possibly their teachers, from their environments have grown much more treating the child, or just following the
peers. This article will discuss two inclusive over the past four decades. Individual Education Plan (IEP)?
Educational Viewpoints -84- Spring 2019
