What Special-Education Placement Works for Your Child?

Where does your child learn best? In an inclusion classroom, resource room, self-contained setting, out-of-district school? Parents spend a lot of time trying to figure out what their kids need, and how to fight for it. And of course, there's always the variable of the school district's commitment to a particular path, which can mean the difference between success and failure.

I've written about different special-education placements, and now I need your help. Add your own experience to my article, to give parents working their way to a decision the broadest range of examples to draw from. Just fill in the "Explain Your Experience" box at the end of the article, or go right to the Readers Report page for this question.

If inclusion's an option you're considering, a book excerpt just added to the Harried Parent's Book Club collection may be of interest: "Differentiating Instruction," from the excellent A Teacher's Guide to Inclusive Education by Peggy A. Hammeken. Though written for teachers, it's a good introduction for parents to a way of doing inclusion that actually includes, instead of marginalizes. For more on this approach, check out the Layered Curriculum units on Dr. Kathie Nunley's Web Site for Educators.

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