Preschoolers with disabilities will be taught in classrooms alongside their nondisabled peers next fall under an inclusion program piloted at seven Denver schools.
Until now, Denver Public Schools placed most children with disabilities in one classroom, separated from nondisabled peers.
The number of preschool slots next school year will increase in Denver by as much as 40 percent, and administrators say they want integrated classrooms for children with disabilities.
“The district has had a goal to create more-inclusive classrooms,” said Cheryl Caldwell, director of DPS’s early childhood education. “This happens to provide us an opportunity. It’s the right thing to do.”
The district’s pilot program will begin in August with 50 slots for 4-year- olds with disabilities in seven schools: Horace Mann, Archuletta, Schenck, Valdez, Ellis, Sabin and Place.
A team of two early-childhood special educators and a speech and language therapist will rotate through the schools.
The change in DPS is a welcome one, said Laura Freppel, assistant director of the exceptional student leadership unit with the Colorado Department of Education.
“We certainly do recommend preschools be as inclusive as possible,” Freppel said.
But, she cautioned, inclusive environments are not for every child.
“For some kids it’s not appropriate to be in the general classroom,” she said. “It can’t be inclusion for inclusion’s sake. ”
Researchers have trumpeted the benefits of inclusive education, particularly in the early years.
Kids with disabilities in a high-quality inclusive program learn appropriate social interactions, communication skills and classroom behavior, said Samuel L. Odom, education professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Access to a peer group that is socially competent, talks and plays and engages children with disabilities in an appropriate way is really beneficial for kids with special needs,” Odom said.
Typical kids in inclusive settings build positive attitudes toward their peers with disabilities as well as knowledge about disabilities and differences, he said.
Research also has shown that costs of inclusive programs are about the same, if not less, than placing kids in self-contained special-ed classrooms, he said.
Current legislation is seeking to increase the funding for preschool and kindergarten programs in Colorado, and Denver residents passed a sales tax increase to pay for preschool slots.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
