“HAVING A SCHOOL OR DISTRICT SUCCESSFULLY INCLUDE ONE CHILD WITH A DISABILITY CAN LEAD TO SYSTEMIC CHANGES” –Dr. Kathleen Feeley

A strong case was made for inclusive education by Dr. Kathleen Feeley at a workshop entitled “Educating Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Settings” held recently at the Washington Street elementary school in Franklin Square. The workshop was funded by Long Island Developmental Disabilities Council, and attended by more than 70 teachers, paraprofessionals, parents and advocates.

Feeley, a professor of behavioral science at Long Island University’s CW Post campus, is a strong proponent of “natural proportions”: allowing people with disabilities to remain in their communities, including local school settings, in the natural proportions in which they occur in the population. “The fundamental issue of how to teach classes is there in either setting: Separate is not equal. Segregated placement does not make children learn.”

Unfortunately, New York State, and particularly Long Island and New York City rank among the highest in the nation in percentages of children with disabilities being educated outside of the general education setting. To Feeley, this harkens back to Willowbrook, the state run school for disabled children which appalled Geraldo Rivera back in the 1970’s. Why are children being shipped on 45 minute bus rides to self-contained classes from pre-school to high school?
“High population makes segregation easier to support: the dollars add up to build separate schools. Despite IDEA! Atrocious!” Feeley said. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation.

According to Feeley’s research, each preschooler is worth $45,000 per year to a specialized school, so they are invested in keeping segregated settings alive. A study done just six years ago found that almost without exception, children with developmental disabilities were placed in classes based on their “level of functioning” despite decades of research that says placing such children among typical peers improves their level of functioning. Children are then “sentenced” to a life of self contained classes, starting at preschool, leading to elementary and high school segregated settings. Sadly when children with disabilities never have an opportunity to interact with non disabled peers, their ability to function as an adult in the real world is severely limited. “When we segregate we take away a person’s ability to have a normal life,” Feeley said.

Of course, the law does support placing children in the least restrictive environment (LRE), in regular education settings to the degree that satisfactory outcomes can be achieved.  Feeley noted numerous studies that have shown the positive benefits of social inclusion, increased expectations, and the opportunity to establish natural supports among peers in the community. Feeley dispels the myth that the presence of students with severe disabilities take away resources from typically developing peers, again with well documented academic research.

So what will it take to make change? Feeley said “sometimes it is just one kid with a crazy mother” who can convince one educator to believe in her child and give inclusion a try. Of course it takes training of teachers, accommodations, and supports, but more importantly, it takes just a few people who believe it can happen. “How do you know it cannot be achieved if satisfactorily if no one has ever tried?”