OSERS Kick Off Inclusion In Early Childhood Programs Webinar Series

February 18, 2016

FIRST WEBINAR FOCUSES ON THE IMPORTANCE OF INCLUSION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

In September of last year, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S Department of Education released a joint policy statement on the importance of inclusion in early childhood education (ECE) programs for children with disabilities. On February 11th, in support of the policy statement, the U.S Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) kicked off a series of webinars on the research, practice, and public awareness of inclusion in early childhood programs.

Thursday’s webinar, hosted by Michael Yudin, U.S Assistant Secretary at OSERS, featured a panel of early education researchers, policy makers, and practitioners who explored the importance of inclusion in ECE programs for students with disabilities.

Yudin began the webinar explaining why meaningful inclusion is so important to individuals with disabilities and to the country as a whole. “Being meaningfully included as a member of society is one of the first steps to equal opportunity in this country,” said Yudin. “It is one of America’s most cherished ideals and is every person’s right and in fact is supported by our laws,” he continued.

Yudin’s introduction set the stage for panelists to discuss where they have seen success when it comes to meaningfully including young learners, and why it matters. Throughout the hour-long webinar, several key themes about inclusion in ECE emerged:

• Inclusion Is Hard Work:

The panelists all agreed that meaningfully including students with disabilities is not easy. It takes extraordinary planning efforts, expertise, and collaboration across departments and disciplines. Linda Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development, Administration for Children and Families, stressed the importance of leadership at all levels in setting an expectation of inclusion. “We cannot underestimate the importance of the leadership and their willingness and desire to have inclusive settings,” she said.

• Inclusion Is Collaborative:

Whether it is therapists and general education teachers working together, teachers working closely with parents to ensure what is being learned at school is carrying over to the home environment, or early education programs sharing information and resources with whoever is administering IDEA, inclusion requires intensive collaboration amongst families and professionals, particularly in the early years.

• Inclusion Enhances The Teaching Profession:

The collaboration that meaningful inclusion requires gives professionals within early childhood programs opportunities to learn from one another and, in the words of Libby Doggett, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Early Learning, “improves the quality of instruction.”

Maggie Connelly, an Education Coordinator in a local head start program explained how teachers and therapists in programs she ran were able to become better at their jobs and more effective at serving their students from watching one another, asking each other questions, and sharing information.

• Inclusion Benefits Everyone:

Inclusion in early childhood not only benefits students with disabilities and the educators who work with them, but inclusion can also benefit students without disabilities and society at large. “The classroom should mirror what children see in the community,” said Connelly. Inclusion, she explained, gives children without disabilities the opportunity to learn to be accepting of all kinds of people, and also model and teach other children, which can be an enriching experience, socially, emotionally, and academically.

• Inclusion In Early Education Has Long-Term Benefits:

One of the measures of success researchers have become increasingly interested in when it comes to inclusion is the sense of belongingness or connectedness that individuals with disabilities experience throughout their lifetimes. Recent research has shown that individuals with disabilities are much more likely than their typically developing peers to be “disconnected” upon leaving the educational system, which can negatively impact everything from mental health to economic opportunity.

As Aaron Bishop, Commissioner of the Administration on Disabilities, Administration for Community Living explained, inclusion that begins early produces the strongest outcomes when it comes to belongingness. “When expectations are high in the early years it enhances the degree of belongingness that families and children with disabilities experience and positively shapes them, putting them on a trajectory for higher expectations.” Higher expectations early on, he explained, lead to a higher probability of “additional education, employment, and higher incomes” for individuals with disabilities, thus greatly enhancing their quality of life.

OSERS will continue exploring inclusion and ECE throughout the next few months. You can watch last week’s webinar in its entirety here.

If you are interested in learning more about the impact of high quality early education on students with disabilities, join our webinar, “PreK, Policy, and Prevention: How High Quality PreK can Have a Profound Impact on Students with Disabilities.” The webinar will be held on Thursday, February 18th at 3pm ET. Registration is free and open to all. Register today!