“If I had asked our general education teachers which of our 63 special education students from self-contained settings would be successful in their classrooms, they would have picked fewer than 10. In fact, the opposite was true about how things turned out. After working hard for a year to give responsible inclusion a chance, we found that only about 10 students needed more intensive services (but still not self-contained classrooms, only more pull-aside time)…The other 53 children were flourishing, modeling the examples of their general education classmates and getting specially designed instruction from both the special education and the general education teachers!”
—Rhonda Kokos
Special Education Coordinator
Franklin-Edison Elementary School, Peoria, IL

What is Responsible Inclusion?
Responsible Inclusion is a term that expresses Edison’s commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the general education classroom. It involves bringing the support services to the child, rather than moving the child to the services. It stems from the belief that each child has something to offer and to gain from being an engaged learner in the classroom. At Edison, both special educators and classroom teachers are committed to working with students with special education needs in general education classrooms.

View Video of Responsible Inclusion at Work

How Does Responsible Inclusion Work?
Students with special education needs are provided direct services — intensive basic skills and strategic instruction — through co-teaching and pull-asides. The intensity of these direct services varies with the needs of the individual child. Students are also supported through indirect services: teacher consultations, house problem-solving, model-teaching, materials adaptation and student monitoring. In addition to the instruction students receive in general education classrooms, special education students also receive related services (such as speech/language, OT, PT, etc.) as specified in their IEPs. If all of these support services combined prove insufficient, (which happens only in a small number of cases) then other arrangements, services or placements are made, with an eye to increasing the connections with their general education classrooms, over time.

Teaching special education at Edison

Sending my special needs child to an Edison school