Separate and Better: A Special Public School Class for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

A current controversy is whether special education is basically sound and needs incremen-tal improvement in practices or needs radical restructuring for inclusion. The rationale for inclusion is summarized. Subsequently, the conceptual orientation underlying a special class for students with emotional or behavioral disorders is articulated, and the implemen-tation of this philosophy in a special class is described. The separate, special class was structured to meet the special needs of students whose behavior made them unwelcome in general education classes. Interviews with school personnel suggested that the class pro-vided an invaluable service that could not be provided in more inclusive arrangements. A current controversy about special education is whether it is best improved through rad-ical restructuring or incremental improvement of its practices (Andrews et al., 2000). The first point of view typically includes the recommendation that children with disabilities be fully included in general education. The second point of view typically includes the reaffirmation of the wisdom of a full continuum of placement options. Both points of view have typically been presented without clear descriptions of actual classroom prac-tices. Our purpose is to contrast the two ideas and then illustrate our own view—that