A Special Education in a Regular Classroom : ‘Full-Inclusion’ Program Is Helping Disabled Girl

Holding her new “Beauty and the Beast” lunch box and pink Barbie backpack, 9-year-old Sydney Taylor waited shyly, but excitedly, in line to start the second grade at Santiago Elementary School.

Nearby, her mother, Joyce, also waited for the day to begin and wondered nervously how Sydney would do this school year--how she would fit in.

“It just goes with the territory of being a mom,” she said. “You can’t help it.”

While the first day of school is a momentous one for many children and their parents, Thursday was especially important for Sydney, who was born with Down’s syndrome, and her family.

Last January, Joyce and Duncan Taylor, following a lengthy battle with the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, won the right for Sydney to attend regular classes. At that time, district officials believed it would be in Sydney’s best interest to stay in special-education classes.

Since then, the Taylors say district educators have gone out of their way to create a “full-inclusion” program that has helped Sydney improve her cognitive and social skills, and will hopefully do the same for other children with similar developmental disabilities.

“We’re not trying to cure Down syndrome,” Joyce Taylor said. “We’re trying to give (Sydney) life skills and the best education we can in a regular setting, in a neighborhood setting.

“Why do we have to separate them? I think it’s going to be wonderful for children to learn to accept each other. Special education is a service, it’s not a place. It can be delivered in the regular classroom by special educators.”

In Orange County, there are about 34,300 children involved in special education programs, according to the most recent statistics from the Orange County Department of Education. Only a handful of those with severe developmental disabilities are involved in full-inclusion programs. In the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, two other children, including one with Down syndrome, will be involved in full-inclusion programs this year.

For years, children with hearing, visual or physical impairment have been attending regular classes in the district.

“What is new is the inclusion of youngsters who are more profoundly or moderately developmentally delayed,” said Rona Martin, district special education coordinator.

A main key to the success of Sydney’s ever-evolving program has been monthly collaboration sessions among her parents, teachers and consultants, said district Personnel Director Jim Hamilton, who helped create the full-inclusion policy.

“There can’t be a cookie-cutter approach to full inclusion,” he said. “You need individually designed programs for each child.”

In general, Sydney spends most of her day in the classroom, working on regular lessons and those adapted to her own level, Principal Nancy Nichols said. She also spends about an hour each day in the school resource specialist program.

So far, the experience has been greeted with enthusiasm by Sydney herself, the youngest of eight children. “I like school,” she said.

And while Sydney is the only child in her class with Down syndrome, she is not the only one with special needs. One classmate is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer and has lost her hair, while another is legally blind.

“We think it’s a real healthy environment,” Nichols said. “I think it’s more realistic for everyone.”

While experts acknowledge that full inclusion is not for everyone, the movement is gaining strength throughout the state, said Cal State Long Beach education professor Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, a consultant for the district.

“There are very few special educational things you can’t do in a regular classroom,” she said.

As for Sydney, her parents believe her biggest challenge will be in trying to gain acceptance from her peers. They also worry about the reaction of some parents, who may fear disabled children will get an unfair amount of attention or bring down the level of the class.

“There’s going to be questions, there are going to be people who don’t believe in this,” Duncan Taylor said. “But the bottom line is, it’s a civil rights issue.”