Predictors of Parents’Inclusion Decisions

Helping children with disabilities has become a part of American education with varying degrees of acceptance and tolerance over the years, and efforts to provide special education have become controversial. Much of the concern is about paying for “extra” services, but the debate is not just about money. Many professionals question the benefits of special education, and the practice of educating children with disabilities in general education classrooms (i.e., inclusion) has recently received increased attention. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of parents toward inclusion and to identify predictors of their opinions about important effects of the practice. Parents of children attending a suburban school district in the Piedmont region of North Carolina participated in the study. In general, parents were opposed to including children with disabilities in general education classrooms, and they did not believe that inclusion would greatly improve academic achievement of children with disabilities or greatly hinder performance of children without disabilities. We discuss the findings with regard to other studies of parent attitudes toward special education as a basis for continued study of the most effective means of promoting an awareness of the benefits and potential limitations of special education.