Cover Story
Inclusion by Design

At East Hartford Middle School, special education and regular education flourish in the same classroom. What's the secret?

Eighth grade voices--excited, but controlled--fill the room. Six groups of students are planning presentations on the Cherokee Indians' "Trail of Tears." One group scripts a play. Another produces a commercial to swing 19th-century public opinion against ethnic cleansing in America.

Wallace Claitty, social studies teacher at Connecticut's East Hartford Middle School, knows how to awaken his students' creativity. He moves between groups, making sure they stay on track.

What complicates an already complex learning situation is that each group includes a student with a disability serious enough to be covered by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Some read at a fourth grade level. One student can't write complete sentences. Claitty wants these children to participate fully without holding back his other students.

Across the country, about 11 percent of children are in special education. Regular teachers are trying to integrate them into mainstream classes. But many encounter a tangle of discipline problems and time-draining meetings, covered with layer upon layer of paperwork.

But here at East Hartford Middle School, IDEA is working. "All the children benefit from inclusion," says Claitty.

What's the secret? It doesn't involve luck or serendipity. Educators looked at the challenges that inclusion poses and devised a cohesive plan to addresses them.

• The school is organized to help teachers get to know their students--a plus in any case, but certainly part of the foundation for successful inclusion. Academic subject teachers are grouped in teams, each sharing roughly 125 students. The teams have a common planning period every day.

• The school uses looping--teachers stay with the same students through grades seven and eight, and the greater familiarity that engenders helps them tailor lessons more precisely.

• And the critical factor: Claitty can pay full attention to one group at a time because there's a second teacher in the room, special education teacher Dawn Rinaldo-Newman.

East Hartford is in its fifth year of "co-teaching"--inclusion for teachers. Each team includes at least one special education teacher.

Rinaldo-Newman works with her colleagues to develop the lesson modifications that "help some of the regular education students as well as the special education students," says Claitty. In the classroom, she provides individual instruction and sometimes introduces activities to the whole class. Not wanting to put the spotlight on her special education students, Rinaldo-Newman works with all the children, though some get more of her attention than others.

When Rinaldo-Newman first came to the school six years ago, she worked in the "special education wing," where children with a wide range of handicaps were lumped together. "They were looked at differently. There were fights in the building," she says. "Now, you can't tell the students apart. They look at each other as equals."

Some students who posed serious discipline problems when they were in separate classes now get their cues from regular education students and are doing much better.

But teacher inclusion has its own special challenges. "It's easy for kids to mix, but it's very difficult for two adults to go into the same classroom and work together," says Rinaldo-Newman. "Sometimes it takes years. Each teacher has a different philosophy, and mine doesn't necessarily match. Mr. Claitty's room is very relaxed, talking is good. But some teachers don't let kids talk at all. For their classes, I put on my traditional hat. Every period, I change hats. It makes you realize how hard it can be for the kids."

Like most successful programs, East Hartford Middle School's approach to special education is not rigid or absolute. It has evolved as teachers felt their way through the changes, and then brought parents along with them.

Most students with disabilities continue to take special reading and math courses. And not everyone is included in inclusion. Students whose problems are too severe are in separate academic classes--about 40 children in this school of 1,250.

The school's "gifted" and "extended" (above average) classes have very few special education children, although one team is trying inclusion in their extended classes.

East Hartford teachers also work through their union, the East Hartford Education Association, which sees improving inclusion as part of its work representing faculty. The Association has even called in Connecticut state authorities to press for more inclusion and more teacher involvement in planning.

"We want to collaborate with the administration," says Association President Cheryl Prevost, an art teacher at East Hartford Middle School. "But when we see situations that need to improve, we do what we have to do, for both children and faculty."

--Alain Jehlen

For more: E-mail Wallace Claitty at wclaitty@easthartford.org or Dawn Rinaldo-Newman at drinaldo@snet.net.

Ways To Benefit All Students

In an Oklahoma school, less paperwork eases inclusion

At Lake Park Elementary School in Putnam City, Oklahoma, just outside Oklahoma City, inclusion is much more than simply placing Katherine Starrett's special education pupils in third grade teacher Becky Bell's class for part of the day.

"We help each other plan for each student," says Bell.

"For us," Starrett confirms, "it's never been a question of 'this is your child, this is my child.' No, it's everybody's child."

"What we do is like teaching reading with phonics and whole language combined," she adds. "It's not either/or. We get a happy mix."

Starrett is a member of NEA's IDEA cadre, a national network of 22 special educators who help their colleagues and have a chance to see how special education is handled or mishandled in many schools. Factors that have helped inclusion succeed in her school include

• Paperwork--or the lack thereof. Oklahoma doesn't pile it on, Starrett explains. "In some states, individualized education programs are 20 pages. In Oklahoma, IEPs can be kept to five or six." Less paper means, of course, more time to plan and to work with students.

• Class size is manageable. Starrett and a paraeducator have 12 special education students. Bell has 19 children including 7 with a range of disabilities.

• Starrett thinks school size is important, too. Lake Park has 350 students. "Our program couldn't be as successful at a larger school," she says.

• Many of the students are low-income, but they're not transient, so teachers--and students--aren't constantly trying to adjust to new people.

• Teachers enjoy the support of their principal. In her work with the NEA cadre, Starrett has met teachers who aren't as lucky. In those cases, "The faculty needs to pull together," says Starrett. "They need strong leadership."

Lake Park's nondogmatic, practical approach to inclusion is also critical to success, Starrett believes. IDEA isn't aimed at fully including every child, she says. "The question to ask is, 'How much time in the regular classroom is beneficial to that child?'"

Last fall, there came a moment when the teachers knew they were doing something right. Their students were playing kickball. One of Starrett's pupils was up. The other kids let him have nine kicks--because it was his ninth birthday.

This seemingly small gesture was a landmark, of sorts. The boy with the ball was one of several emotionally disturbed children integrated into Bell's classroom. These children have great difficulty getting along with both grown-ups and peers. So that moment of kindness on the court was not to be taken for granted, says Bell. It showed that the birthday boy had developed the social skills needed to earn a celebratory gesture from his classmates. And it showed that the regular ed students have learned a lot about acceptance and inclusion.

These students are mirroring the qualities of Starrett's and Bell's own partnership--cooperation, respect, and a determination to make things work.

--Chris Bartolomeo

For more: E-mail Becky Bell at BBell@putnamcityschools.org or Katherine Starrett at KStarrett@putnamcityschools.org.

Q&A
A Prom Photo: 'That's What IDEA is About'

Paula Goldberg heads the PACER Center, a federally funded agency whose mission is to help parents understand IDEA, and work effectively with teachers.

How did you get involved with IDEA and parents?
I was a teacher in the Chicago area before the federal law passed in 1975, and a third of my students had special needs, although they weren't identified that way. I took a course on "The Atypical Child" because I didn't have enough training.

When my own child was born, I chaired a study on special education for the League of Women Voters. Some of us went to the legislature and said parents need to help plan their children's programs. That was pretty revolutionary. We got a small grant to teach parents about their role under the law. We're still doing that.

What advice do you have for a teacher who feels he or she is not communicating well with a parent?
Call the parent at home. One-on-one takes time, but it is productive. It shows the teacher cares.

Families tell us that all they hear in school are the negatives. Sometimes they don't want to come to school because of that. Every person has strengths. Say to the parents, "Your child draws well, but we are having problems with this behavior. What can we work out together?"

Parents and teachers want the same thing. One parent called us from a phone booth. She didn't have a phone, and she had redeemed empty bottles to get the change to use the phone. No matter what the income level, parents want to help their children.

We also had a teacher who called us anonymously because she was afraid she would lose her job if her district found out. Teachers care.

What changes have you seen?
It's just amazing how far we've come. Prior to 1975, children with disabilities were often kept in institutions.

I have a picture on my refrigerator of a girl who had cerebral palsy--couldn't walk or talk. At age four, we helped her get a device with which she could press a button to say, "I'd like a cookie." After a year, she didn't need it anymore. She was integrated into a regular class and in second grade she was Student of the Month. The picture on my refrigerator is from her high school prom. She's planning to go to junior college. That's what IDEA is about.

Communicating with Parents

Working with parents can be one of the thorniest, yet most important and productive aspects of teaching children with disabilities. These are excerpts from the chapter on parents in the NEA Professional Library's IDEA Survival Guide.

Scene 1--Hands-on Parents
David's parents want constant updates: daily reports, weekly lesson plans, supplemental weekend materials, and end-of-month progress reports. With 27 other children in my classroom, eight of them with special needs, I just don't have the time.

If the reporting mechanisms David's parents are requesting are not in the IEP, you are under no obligation to provide all of them. Talk with David's parents: Are the reports they're requesting germane to IEP goals? Would they be satisfied with a modified version of their requests? Offer a number of options:

• Is it possible to send a quick E-mail or make a brief phone call rather than writing a daily report?

• Can you customize a simple check-off sheet to record David's progress? The categories might include on-task behaviors, task completion, social interaction, and class discussion.

• Can an annotated weekly lesson plan take the place of an extra report? You can note the modifications you're making for David.

If David's parents are inflexible, your administrator may be able to intervene. Point out to parents that an excess of paperwork and record keeping can interfere with teaching time.

If you cannot come to an understanding, contact your local Association. Your contract may allow you to grieve an unreasonable workload.

Scene 2--Hard-to-Reach Parents
I teach a student who is refusing to do her work. I've made repeated attempts to contact Amy's mother. She won't come in and seldom returns calls. She has not responded to the school's request for another IEP meeting. Can we hold an IEP meeting if Amy's mother is not present?

An IEP meeting may be conducted without parents if the school has made a good faith effort to convince the parents to attend. The school should keep a record of its attempts to arrange a mutually agreed upon time and place.

The team can make decisions about Amy's IEP without her mother's presence, especially if her goals and objectives remain essentially the same as those her mother agreed to previously. However, Amy's mother has the right to challenge decisions.

If parents don't agree to their child's IEP program within a certain time period, the school may choose to initiate due process procedures to induce the parents to make a decision.

Scene 3--Parents as Advocates
I'm so overwhelmed this year, I have to keep reminding myself why I chose this profession. My classroom is overcrowded and several students with disabilities have been placed in it. What can I do?

Parents can be your strongest advocates. When talking to parents, it's critical to communicate exactly what you need in the way of materials, time, or staff. Since parents are not answerable to school administrators, they can step forward even when teachers feel powerless. Needless to say, communication with parents should be diplomatic and professional.

Resources

From the NEA

• The IDEA Survival Guide is one of the Professional Library's most widely used publications. The Survival Guide uses realistic scenarios and best-practice solutions to help teachers deal with a variety of issues related to students with special needs. It also contains a comprehesive list of print, electronic, and organizational resources. Call 800/229-4200 or go to www.nea.org/books.

  The Survival Guide can also be downloaded free at http://home.nea.org/books/list.cfm?groupid=40.

• There's also useful information on the NEA Web site at www.nea.org/publiced/idea.

• The NEA's IDEA/Special Education Cadre is a group of 22 working educators with wide experience in special education who are available to help state and local Associations. Call 202/822-7404 or E-mail FNorthcutt@nea.org.

Other Resources

Several organizations have excellent Web sites. NEA works with many of these groups:

• The National Information Center for Children and Youth With Disabilities, www.nichcy.org.

• The Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights: www.pacer.org.

• The U.S. Department of Education: www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/.

• The IDEA Partnerships: www.ideapractices.org.

• The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: www.asha.org.

• The American Occupational Therapy Association: www.aota.org.

• The National Association of School Psychologists: www.nasponline.org.

• The National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, www.cast.org.

• The Learning Project--LD Online, www.ldonline.org.