While children in mainstream schools are learning the ABC’s, kids in Special needs facilities are learning to dress themselves, learn to communicate through alternative channels, basic life skills, toileting and the like.

Although Special needs children receive the specialised support they require there are several powerful reasons these Special Needs services to be provided in a mainstream setting.

5 Reasons to Enrol Special Needs Children in Mainstream Schools with full time support:

1. Mainstream Students learn to accept the Child behind the disability. While ever kids are made to feel different or “removed” from society there will always be issues relating to acceptance. Students with disabilities need to learn, fail and succeed like any other mainstream student.

2. Disabled Children develop a sense of acceptance. Removing Special Needs Kids from a mainstream setting for permanent education in purpose built facilities does, by default, give them a sense of not only being different but forced to feel unaccepted by society. Kids from All walks of life are different. Some are Short, Some are black, some have red hair and freckles some are obese. All of these differences does not cause these kids to be treated differently. It also does not force them to attend Specialised Education.

3. Social Interaction becomes a permanent part of the Child’s Education and not a “Special Event” or excursion. Removing a child from society to teach them social skills makes about as much sense as taking the paper OUT of the printer to print a document.

4. Not only do Special needs kids learn about the real world, Mainstream Students also learn about the world of a special needs child. Mainstream kids should be given the opportunity to learn a non-spoken language such as Makaton. It not only allows communication with those who can not speak it is also a powerful communication language for people in noisy work environments.

5. Specialised services become more readily available to other students in Mainstream schools. There will always be students with difficulties in all levels of school. Some students with mild Autism, Cerebral Palsy or ADHD. When students with more severe disabilities are educated at mainstream schools, the services for the less severe disabilities are available on hand rather than by appointment.

Society needs to move through generations of change and acceptance before Special Needs Kids and adults will be given some form of belonging to the real world.

Eric J. Smith

The concept of institutionalised care and education is almost a thing of the past. Though some circles still feel special needs kids and adults do not have a place in mainstream society, thankfully these groups are diminishing as the decades roll on.

The placement of Special needs kids in mainstream school has many benefits to the special needs child but also the school community as a whole. Mainstream school kids get to know the disabled child for the person inside the body, not the outward disability. This goes a long way to improving social acceptance of the special needs kids both now as a child in school and later as an adult in the community.

As a parent of a disabled child I often liken the use of Special School facilities to taking a bath without any water or taking a flight in a plane without wings.

Just like we need water to take a bath we also need a “normal” social setting to educate special needs kids about society and interacting in it. The use of Special Education facilities is like taking a mainstream school student to the desert to teach them to swim.

I should pause to explain that this article is written out of frustration due to a long run battle for our child to be accepted at a mainstream school on a permanent basis. The closest we have ever been able to get was 4 days at a mainstream school and 1 day at special education – with this likely to expand each year until she was a permanent pupil at the special education school.

As parents we are in no way against the Specialised Education our daughter requires. We do however, feel this Extra support could and should be made available to her at a mainstream school. She should have the ability to have lunch with her siblings, participate in Lunchtime activities with mainstream kids, Attend sporting events – whether participating or cheering – and generally socialise with her age group peers.

The concept of splitting Education between 2 facilities due to a disability is like splitting a child’s world in half. Its saying “Its ok to be called ‘normal’ a couple of days a week and ‘disabled’ for the rest of the week”.

The teachers call it “getting the best of both worlds”. Unfortunately we don’t live in 2 worlds. We live in one world and we should all be accepted as equal within it regardless of race, colour, ability, disability or orientation.