Mainstreaming

In education, the practice of teaching mentally or emotionally handicapped children in regular classrooms with non-handicapped children is known as mainstreaming. There has been an increasing interest in this practice since the 1960s due to numerous factors. For example, recent research shows that many handicapped students learned better in regular than in special classes. In addition, there have been charges that racial imbalances existed in special education classes. The federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which states that all handicapped children have the right to a "free and appropriate" education in the "least restrictive environment," has been frequently interpreted as supporting the expansion of mainstreaming (Columbia University Press, 2003).

Mainstreaming has worked well with those segments of the special student population whose disabilities are compatible with a classroom setting and is felt in general to better prepare handicapped students socially for life after school. It has...
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