by Brian Fleming

Created on: January 16, 2009   Last Updated: August 17, 2010

The one successful way to improve the American special education system is to create full inclusion schools through the United States. Instead of separating those with special needs from those who do not have the same needs, we should blend them, integrating special needs students completely into a classroom with most other students.

Opponents of this proposition say that special needs students don't receive the one-on-one attention needed to grow and learn. To counter this opinion, paraprofessionals are a staple in the inclusion setting. For those of you who have never heard of paraprofessionals, they are individuals who work, generally, one on one with a special needs student in an inclusion setting, as well as occasionally supporting the class as a whole. The full inclusion model works when paraprofessionals aide teachers in teaching all students and helping foster healthy relationships between those who do not have special needs and those who do.

Let me give you a real life example of how a full inclusion system not only works, but flourishes. I am a paraprofessional who works at Chime Charter Middle School. This middle school operates under the full inclusion model, where anywhere between one and four or five special needs students are in every class (the rest of the students being without special needs). The students with special needs listen to the teacher, just the same as any other student, and receive modified work based on the subject at hand.

Academically, the special needs students at this school are flourishing, as they are pushed to achieve their full potential. Socially, these special needs students far surpass those students who are not in an inclusion setting. These students with special needs interact with other students every day, in every class, at nutrition, and lunch. These special needs students have more friends without special needs than those special needs students who are isolated from the general student body at a regular middle school. These interactions with the general student body help to improve and strengthen social skills and attention to the social skills that most of us take for granted.

In short, the full inclusion model is truly the easiest and most successful way of improving the American special education system. Consider this model. If you are a critic of this model, do so more research, visit a full inclusion school in your area. I am confident that you will soon agree with me on this position.

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