Mainstreaming

Section 11 Group 3


 * Trend Name:** Mainstreaming


 * Basic Summary of Trend:** Generally, mainstreaming refers to placing special education students in one or more “regular” education classes. It assumes that a student be given the same opportunity to be placed in a regular classroom setting by demonstrating the ability to “keep up” with the work assigned. Under this trend in education, the key is to bring the support and the extra care to the child rather than forcing the child to attend a specialized school, which only accentuated the differences.


 * Key Manifestations:** Prior to the 1970’s, self-contained classrooms were the norm for children with disabilities. Eventually, court cases began to direct public education toward the placement of more disabled students into general education settings. Now inclusive education and mainstreaming is of great interest internationally. As of 1997, 24 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development were conducting studies on restructuring special education to incorporate more mainstreaming.


 * Key Personnel:** The trend of mainstreaming involves the cooperation of educative facility in combination with laws such as PL 94-142. This law, passed in 1975, ensures every child with a disability be provided with the //lease restrictive environment.//  Mainstreaming became the term used to refer to the primary implication the law had for elementary to high school levels of children.
 * Why/How a trend:** Mainstreaming is a trend because as research progresses we are continually finding ways to enable children with disabilities to be incorporated into he normal classroom settings with other children. While it used to be the norm for children with disabilities to be placed in very specialized schools the trend of mainstreaming continues to push these children into normal learning environments, something never considered in the past.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi/qa3673/is_188704/ai_n8774913 http://www.flaqs.org/health/topics/2/Mainstreaming.html
 * Links:** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstreaming_in _education