Education for Students with Disabilities: From Exclusion to Belonging

For students with disabilities, school should be a place where everyone feels they belong. However, the education system has a long history of exclusion and segregation when it comes to these students. It wasn’t that long ago that there was no expectation that children with disabilities should or could attend public schools. While situations have greatly improved, it has been a long journey from exclusion to segregation to integration to inclusion. The journey won’t be complete until we all embrace the next step, a sense of belonging.

The Evolution of Education for Students with Disabilities

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) changed that by mandating that children with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education alongside their peers with and without disabilities in the general education setting or least restrictive environment to the greatest extent possible. In 1970, only 1 in 5 children with disabilities was educated in a public school, and many states had laws that excluded children with certain disabilities from school. IDEA requires states to identify, locate, and evaluate all children suspected of having a disability so they can get the services they need.

Children with disabilities have been brought into the public school setting amid their same-age peers without disabilities. However, the lives of students with and without disabilities still rarely intersect. In the absence of shared activities, strong social connections are unlikely to form. Integration falls short of fostering true belonging for students with disabilities within their school communities.

Defining Belonging in the School Community

Belonging comes when each person in the school community feels valued and accepted by their peers and teachers. So how can this be accomplished? As Cheryl M. Jorgensen, Michael McSheehan, and Rae M. Sonnenmeir have written, school community members must go beyond simply allowing students with disabilities to be present in all school activities. They need to take an active role in promoting an atmosphere of belonging.

During class discussions, regularly ask students with and without disabilities to share stories of when they felt welcomed by others. Consider how peers can provide natural support to one another. Often adults are assigned to help and support children with disabilities. This can be marginalizing and exclusive. When students with and without disabilities have plenty of well-supported opportunities to spend time together within and beyond the classroom, many preconceived notions or misconceptions about people with disabilities can be turned around simply through the experience of sharing space.

Researcher Eric W. Carter advocates for expanding dimensions of belonging for students with disabilities. One way this can be done is by having teachers work together to create student profiles for all learners that emphasize student strengths. This ensures that everyone knows the positive qualities of students with (and without) disabilities. Ask parents, other teachers, and other students about students’ interests, preferences, desires, likes, dislikes, abilities, and talents. Teachers can then use this information to group students for projects, assignments, or other social activities. For instance, rather than randomly grouping students, assign them to groups by a common like or dislike, favorite food, or least favorite school subject. This allows students to connect socially before taking on the assigned task.

Creating a School-Wide Culture of Belonging

According to research, creating a true culture of belonging needs to extend beyond the classroom and permeate the entire school environment. Schoolwide efforts might include conducting a walk-through of your school buildings and surrounding areas to identify any physical or environmental barriers that could prevent students with disabilities from accessing the location and the people within it.

Pay attention to how people at your school talk about students with disabilities. Do they emphasize the disability labels over the students? (For example, do they use phrases like “IEP [individualized education program] students” or “special ed students”?) Do they equate disability with deficit? Do their words and actions communicate acceptance and belonging, or do they tend more toward exclusion, discomfort, or intolerance?

Gently and respectfully interrupt these connotations each time you encounter them. Educate people voicing them, rather than scolding.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

With the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) and its amendments, Congress recognized schools must be inclusive of all students and use evidence-based approaches to support the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students with disabilities. Despite this progress, students with disabilities continue to be excluded from general education settings. PBIS is the only approach specifically mentioned in the law for preventing exclusion, improving educational outcomes, and addressing the behavior support needs of students with disabilities.

Why implement PBIS with students with disabilities? Studies have shown that PBIS leads to:

Higher levels of prosocial behavior and fewer concentration problems
Decreased unexcused tardies
Fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors
Fewer office discipline referrals
Fewer suspensions
Decreased restraints and seclusions in alternate settings

A Tiered Framework to Support Students with Disabilities

Children and youth with disabilities benefit from free, appropriate, public education designed to meet their unique needs. At the same time, we serve students with disabilities best when we integrate their general and specialized supports into the larger school-wide PBIS framework.

Tier 1

Students with disabilities benefit from Tier 1 when supports are developed and provided in a way that is accessible and relevant to all. Within classrooms, children with and without disabilities benefit from explicit instruction in social, emotional, and behavioral skills, lots of opportunities to respond, positive acknowledgements, and brief reminders, like prompts and pre-corrections. The suggestions for differentiating Tier 1 below allow students with disabilities to access Tier 1 supports alongside their peers.

Tier 2

Students with disabilities who have targeted social, emotional, and behavioral needs may benefit from Tier 2 supports. Tier 2 interventions are targeted to address common needs for small groups of students. One consideration when supporting students with disabilities through Tier 2 interventions is to ensure the Tier 2 intervention does not reduce or replace services outlined in the student’s IEP.

Tier 3

Tier 3 supports a few students who have intensive or individualized social, emotional, and behavioral needs that persist or remain unmet with Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports alone. It is important to recognize that Special Education services are not the same as Tier 3 supports. Students with and without IEPs can benefit from Tier 3 supports if Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports alone have not been successful in meeting the student’s needs. Tier 3 supports include designing individualized Behavior Support Plans (BSP) with interventions driven by Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA). Teams may apply a person-centered or wraparound process to support students with complex needs. These supports place the student and family at the center of the support.

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Students with disabilities access Tier 3 interventions in two ways: as part of typical school practices or as required through the IEP. When a student is suspected to have a disability, teams follow their district policies and procedures to comply with IDEA regulations.

Resources for Educators and Families

Several resources are available to support educators and families in creating inclusive environments for students with disabilities:

Are Fewer Students with Disabilities Suspended When Schools Implement PBIS?: This evaluation brief explores the relationship between schools’ implementation of Tier 1 (universal) support within a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework and the proportion of students with disabilities suspended.
Supporting Students with Disabilities in the Classroom within a PBIS Framework: This practice brief describes the “top ten” intervention strategies effective educators implement to support all students, including students with disabilities, in their classroom.
Supporting Students with Disabilities in the Classroom: Video presentation from the 2020 PBIS Leadership Forum that describes critical features of PBIS to support students with disabilities, discusses how to differentiate and intensify key practices, and highlights Center resources to support students with disabilities at home and school.
Family Plan for Positive Behavior at Home: Families can use this resource to make a family schedule, choose family expectations, and make a plan to teach, remind, reward, and respond to behavior at home.
Questions for Families to Consider when Concerned about their Child’s Behavior: This document is intended to assist families of children with disabilities that already have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in asking questions to learn more about their child’s behavior in school.

Navigating IDEA and Special Education Services

IDEA gives states latitude in setting eligibility criteria and defining disability categories. Challenges with identifying and evaluating children can also affect enrollment rates. For example, when children don't speak English, school districts don't always have staff that can evaluate them in their first language, or who are skilled in distinguishing language proficiency from disabilities. Because they move frequently, military families with special needs face unique challenges with accessing services. DOD helps families with special needs develop plans outlining the support they require.

Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, are less likely than youth with other disabilities to transition successfully from high school to work or college. IDEA requires that school districts help youth with ASD prepare for the transition to adulthood. In school year 2015-16, about 85% of districts provided services such as instruction on life and social skills, and behavioral coaching.

Key Components of Special Education

All laws that help students with disabilities attend public school share common themes:

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
Individualized Education Program (IEP)

Understanding the IEP Process

IEP Team: IEP Team members include school representatives and teachers. Parents must be invited, with the meeting time arranged to meet their needs.
Evaluation and Assessment: Many kinds of evaluations take place in school to determine eligibility and subsequent similar reevaluations are carried out by a team. Other, less extensive evaluations may occur on an as needed or requested basis. If teachers request evaluations, they must be provided. Evaluations are not just standard tests or checklists.
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): Once proper services are identified for a student with disabilities, the services must be provided in the least restrictive environment (LRE).

Resolving Disputes

Disputes over special education services may be resolved informally or formally. When you disagree with your child’s school district over eligibility, goals, services, or supports, the special education process offers several opportunities to informally resolve disputes. Problem-solving steps, a list of common problems, an explanation of state complaints vs. federal complaints, due process hearings, and mediation are all available options.

Transition Planning

Almost all students in special education are entitled to prevocational, vocational and transition planning and services. The school should offer assessment and services to help your child prepare for life after school, including work and other community activities.

Section 504

Services are also available to students under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The 504 Plan must include special education and related services to meet the individual needs of the student.

Protection Against Disability-Related Harassment

Students with disabilities have rights when facing harassment because of their disabilities by peers or staff in school.

Key Definitions

Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD): The committee (also known as IEP teams or IEP committees) responsible for the development and review of a child’s individualized education plan (IEP), evaluation and re-evaluation, functional behavioral analysis (FBA), and behavior intervention plan (BIP).
Annual Review (AR): The yearly meeting of the individualized education program (IEP) team.
Assessment: Evaluations used to identify a student’s strengths, weaknesses, and progress.
Assistive Technology (AT): Technology used by individuals with disabilities in order to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible.
Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE): The education to which every student is entitled under IDEA.
Inclusion, Inclusive Classroom: Inclusion secures opportunities for students with disabilities to learn inside mainstream classrooms.
IEP Team: The team of qualified professionals made up of the parent, special education teacher, interpreter of test data, district representative, and general education teacher at a minimum.
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): The environment in which students with disabilities must be educated, as mandated by The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).
Response to Intervention (RTI): A process used by educators to help students who are struggling with a skill or lesson.
Specific Learning Disability (SLD): A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using spoken or written language.
Transition/Transition Plan: A change in a student’s school or program.
Triennial Review (Tri): An IEP review meeting that takes place every three years to discuss a student’s continuing eligibility for special education services.

The Importance of Inclusion

Inclusion is the intentional design of educational systems that provide ALL students equal access, opportunities, and a sense of belonging. A truly inclusive environment does not value one marginalized group over another; instead, it recognizes the unique backgrounds of all members of the community, including but not limited to cultural heritage, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender, disability, or any other differences. Individuals with disabilities often experience discrimination from multiple perspectives, as disability intersects with other marginalized identities. Not all disabilities are visible, often leading to assumptions about students’ abilities.

To create awareness about disabilities, the implementation of inclusive programs is essential. Programs like these provide valuable opportunities for students to learn about diverse experiences, including those who live with disabilities, and help them develop a more empathetic understanding of the world. Inclusion is a comprehensive framework that provides consistent and universal experience for all members of a learning community. The ultimate goal of inclusion is to ensure every student has the opportunity to engage, participate, feel appreciated, and be heard, regardless of their identity.

Creating an Inclusive Classroom

Creating an inclusive classroom acknowledges and accommodates the unique needs and abilities of all students. Academic inclusion considers the removal of any barriers that may prevent students from accessing the content, participating in classroom activities, and demonstrating their knowledge. Physical inclusion is the intentional design of all places and spaces on a school campus that cater to the diverse needs of students. It involves exceeding the minimum ADA accessibility requirements, such as wheelchair ramps, elevators, and wide doorways. Instead, it consists of designing a space that supports learning and enables students to be successful for an extended period-for instance, providing flexible seating arrangements such as standing desks and beanbag chairs.

Benefits of Inclusive Education

Research suggests that inclusive education positively impacts all students, not just those who receive special education services.

Improve Academic Success: A study conducted by Indiana University and published in the Journal of Special Education in 2022 found that high schools implementing inclusive classrooms have higher grades and are better prepared for secondary education and future jobs.
Increase Confidence: Inclusive classrooms have benefits that go beyond academic achievement. They help students develop self-confidence and improve their social interactions with their peers. Instead of viewing differences negatively, inclusive classrooms celebrate diversity and promote acceptance of differences.
Develop a Sense of Community: Inclusive classrooms promote social and emotional development among students. By encouraging group activities and collaborative projects, students learn to communicate effectively and work together. This approach also helps them develop respect for each other’s differences.
Provide Support and Access for All Students: In an inclusive classroom, teachers use a flexible teaching approach rather than a standardized one. Inclusion plays a vital role in promoting community and collaboration, which helps cultivate a supportive learning environment for ALL students.

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