Mixed Report Card for ‘Mainstreaming’ Disabled Pupils : Education: Special aides and resources are to follow those students who need them, but in these tight budget times, critics say that often does not happen.

When teachers at Keene Mill Elementary in Fairfax County, Va., were told to learn how to catheterize a paralyzed girl, teacher Debbie Masnik said they were “up in arms.”

In Masnik’s own classes, more and more children with special needs are in regular classes, including an emotionally disturbed sixth-grader who “created a near riot” among 12-year-olds when he defecated in his seat.

Thousands of miles away in Utah, Kennedy Junior High School teacher Jennifer Robinson is coping with even more children with severe medical, learning and emotional problems. One seventh-grader with a behavioral disorder regularly shouted, refused to sit, even ate staples off the floor.

“I think it is very detrimental to the entire class for him to be in there,” Robinson said. “Every student should have an equal opportunity to be in the mainstream classroom. It’s a good concept, but I am not sure how realistic it is.”

According to the Education Department, 1.6 million children with a whole range of disabilities from autism to speech impairment now spend the entire school day in regular classes, and the number is growing by more than 100,000 students a year.

After federal legislation in 1975 mandated the “least restrictive environment” possible for disabled students, increasing numbers of these children were mainstreamed for part of the day and given individual instruction and medical help at special resource centers. But now an increasing number of states are closing special-education centers and placing these children in traditional classrooms all day.

In theory, special aides and resources are to follow those disabled students who need them, but in these tight budget times, critics say that often does not happen. Teachers are starting to speak up about how some students with special needs are disrupting the classroom and making it impossible for students to concentrate on English, math or history. Even some advocates of inclusion are asking if schools are doing this because it is best for children or because it is cheaper.

“I believe in inclusion in general, but I don’t believe in budget-driven inclusion,” said Sally Smith, founder of the Lab School, a private school in Washington, D.C., that serves children with disabilities.

The cost of educating a child with special needs varies widely according to the disability and how the school accommodates these students, but school districts routinely pay $25,000 extra for each child they place in special education classes.

“Certain kids who are just in wheelchairs or have mild learning disabilities can definitely function in regular classrooms,” but others could languish there, said Smith, also director of American University’s special education department. “The way it is suddenly buzzing around the country, inclusion has become like civil rights. In fact, the rights of some children are being violated by forcing them in the mainstream.”

Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a union that represents 800,000 teachers, said in “this huge rush all across the country to push for inclusion, nobody is asking, ‘Is it hurting the majority of the class?’ ”

He believes sometimes it is. The union in December publicly opposed the practice of including every child, especially the most medically fragile and emotionally disturbed.

If it does not stop, the union said, the number of disabled students in mainstream classes will double, teachers will be overwhelmed and the majority of students in these classes will suffer academically.

“If you have 40 minutes in a class period, and you have some child who is incredibly disruptive, who requires a lot of your time, learning goes right down the drain,” Robinson said.

But there are strong arguments to try as hard as possible not to exclude a single student.

“Children with the most severe disabilities are being fully integrated, and it is benefiting everyone,” said Sharon Davis, a director of The Arc, a national organization on mental retardation. Davis said the reason “this movement is gaining ground” is because people see its benefits to all students, just as they see the good in mixing students of different races and ethnic backgrounds.

Davis, however, said her group, based in Arlington, Tex., does not support “just dumping” disabled students in regular classes, but instead wants schools to give teachers the extra training, help and resources they need.

Other advocates of full inclusion argue that the practice is a good one, because minority students have disproportionately--and sometimes unfairly--been categorized as learning disabled and relegated to special classes where less is expected of them.

Judith Heumann, assistant secretary for special education, in November reported to Congress on the record number of students with disabilities in regular classes, saying: “Historically, we have had two education systems, one for students with disabilities and one for everybody else. We are working to create one education system that values all students.”