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What's the Difference?
Mainstreaming Physically Challenged Teens By Carma Haley Shoemaker
"My son attended a private school for disabled children through fourth grade," says Candy Faith, a human service intake worker in Macon, Georgia. "As he got older, he didn't like being treated different, so we discussed his attending public school. We had options: him attending a special education program at the public school or attending classes from the regular curriculum with the other kids his age. After talking it over and over and over, he decided he wanted to be included in all of it, not mainstreamed. He's still in public school. He's doing very well."
"We have learned that if regular education students understand the issues and have been given good information about how to be helpful to the student with special needs, they are very supportive," Larkin says. "Yet, if the transition planning is not carefully monitored, the experience can be very painful, especially for the student with special needs. They can feel quite isolated. This is the exact opposite of what we hope to achieve. This is why we need to prepare everyone."