Inclusive Education for All

This article appears in full in the Denver Post. The excerpt is from The Inclusion Daily Express.

Denver Public Schools Puts Preschoolers With Disabilities Into Inclusive Classes
(Denver Post)
June 4, 2009

DENVER, COLORADO– [Excerpt] At first, Patricia Valdez was not sure she wanted her 4-year-old daughter, Arianna, in a full-day preschool classroom with typically developing children.

Doctors suspect Arianna may have autism, her mother said. The girl’s speech is delayed, and she sometimes has trouble communicating.

Until this year, Denver Public Schools would have placed Arianna with other preschool kids with disabilities in a self-contained classroom staffed by special-education teachers and therapists.

This year the district tried out a pilot program to include 50 kids with disabilities in six of its preschools, and Arianna is in one of them.

“It has speeded her up,” said Valdez as she dropped off Arianna at Trevista at Horace Mann, in northwest Denver. “She’s made great improvements. She knows her colors and numbers. She is starting to express herself more and is not all blank.”

Entire article:
DPS puts preschoolers with disabilities into inclusive classes
http://www.denverpost.com/technology/ci_12498084

 

S.K.