Students with Disabilities: Inclusion

Download Inclusion chart (18KB)

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT

This set of bar graphs shows you, by school district, the extent to which students with disabilities are included within general-education classrooms. The first (left-hand) segment of each bar shows the percentage of students who are included about 80% of the time or more. The districts are ranked by this indicator – the districts at the top of the chart include most or all of their students with disabilities about 80% of the time or more.

The second segment shows the percentage of students with disabilities included from about 40% of the time to about 80% of the time; the third segment shows the percentage of students with disabilities who are included within general-education classrooms less than 40% of the time.

The fourth segment of each bar shows the percentage of students with disabilities in the district who are sent to separate special schools, generally on a tuition basis. The fifth (right-hand) segment shows the percentage of students with disabilities who are homebound or hospitalized.

Each bar accounts for all students with disabilities in the district. At the right-hand side of each bar, you can see the percentage of students with disabilities within each district and the per-pupil expenditures in each district for students with disabilities – the total amount spent in each district on the instruction of pupils with disabilities divided by the number of pupils with disabilities in the district.

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

What is most important is that each student receive the appropriate education. That varies by student, and sometimes the appropriate education for a particular student means outplacement to a separate school.

Ideally, however, most students with disabilities should have access to the general-education curriculum and instruction as much as possible; most students with disabilities learn best when they are included in the classroom with general-education students. So you are looking to see that your district includes most or all of its students within general-education classrooms at least 80% of the time.

The information on this table is most useful when viewed alongside assessment data for the students with disabilities. Are the students with disabilities in the school or district performing as well as the general-education students on the state assessments? Are their test scores improving over time? Is the school or district meeting its annual targets for students with disabilities?