Persuasive Speech About Inclusion

Persuasive Speech About Inclusion I. Introduction 1. The last time that I spoke with you I talked about the idea of inclusion. If you do not remember what inclusion is, I will remind you. Inclusion is the idea that children are educated, regardless of disability, in general education classes with the support and guidance of special education teachers. After reading the text book called inclusion, I informed you about putting these children in their least restrictive environment, which is allowing students with disabilities to be in an environment that allows them to appropriately learn while being educated in a classroom that is as close to normal as possible. These ideas are very important to me and I would like for them to be implemented into all schools. II. Body 1. The article called “Our School Doesn’t Offer Inclusion” describes the three most common misunderstandings that public schools have about Inclusion and placing students in their least restrictive environment. a. The article suggests that many schools place children who are labeled with having a disability directly into self-contained classrooms instead of giving them the experience of a regular education. b. The author, Paula Kluth, states that many schools think that because they do not have adequate personnel or resources that they can avoid and even ignore inclusion. She explains that many school districts do not understand the law about inclusion and how to apply it in their corporation. c. Paula Kluth says inclusion is an idea that schools think that they can choose to have or not have, which is not the case. Others think that they can remove, or not even place, students with disabilities from a classroom if they do not have the same skills as the other students in the general education classroom. d. The article expresses the fact that schools must be able to explain to a court why a child cannot be educated in a general education classroom and a family does not have to prove why their child can. e. It also stressed that schools are required to have aid and services to accommodate students with disabilities and teachers are required to create lessons that allow these students to successfully participate in general education classrooms. f. Many schools that were talked about in this article did not understand that these two ideas were not debatable and that there are actual laws about them. 2. These laws are stated in the IDEA. IDEA is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA states that there are important areas that need to be met, including methods to identify students with learning disabilities, early intervening services, highly qualified teachers, and meeting accessibility standards. a. The first step towards inclusion is identifying students with learning disabilities. Schools used to identify students based on IQ test. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act explains that this is not always the best way to determine if a student has a learning disability. Many things can cause a student to do poorly on a test, whether they are sick, they are having family problems, or even if they just do not feel like taking the test that. IDEA demands that educators cannot rely on a single procedure as the sole criterion for determining eligibility for special education. Teachers are required to use a variety of data-gathering tools and strategies to measure a students learning abilities. b. The second step towards inclusion is having early intervening services. These services are provided to students who have not been identified as needing special education but who require academic support to succeed in general education classes. This reduces the need to determine if a child has a disability before providing support. c. The next step towards inclusion is making sure that a school has highly qualified teachers. Having multiple special education teachers in a school allows students with disabilities to be placed in general education classrooms. Special education teachers have to fulfill a lot of expectations in order for these children to succeed in these classrooms. They have to inform the general education teachers on how to teach these students with disabilities in the best way possible. They need to help general education teachers provide changes to their lessons so that all students in their classrooms can succeed. d. The final step towards inclusion is making sure that schools provide students with disabilities access to appropriate and accessible instructional materials. This means that schools are required to provide anything that a student with a disability might need. For example audio tapes of books, reading aloud tests, or a sign language interpreter, ect. III. Conclusion 1. Just because there are all of these laws requiring certain things to be done in schools to include inclusion doesn’t mean that everyone believes in it. 2. According to the article “Teachers Attitudes and Inclusion” 12 to 15 percent of teachers are against inclusion. That number is way too big and negatively affects many children. 3. Teachers need to accept the fact that they are going to have to make lessons that accommodate students with disabilities in their classrooms and schools have to realize that lack of personnel and resources is not an excuse to ignore or avoid these laws. 4. School district leaders and school principles who understand the federal law, Individuals with Disabilities Act, can avoid lawsuits, enhance education experiences for students without disabilities, and move toward the development of school communities that are equal, just, and democratic for all.