The impact of inclusive education reforms on students with disability: an international comparison

ABSTRACT

When the Salamanca Statement called upon States to recognise the ‘necessity and urgency’ of providing students with a disability access to the regular education system (UNESCO 1994, viii), both Australia and the United States of America had existing legislative and policy documents articulating the rights of students with a disability to access regular education. Since that time both countries have clarified and amended their respective laws and policies, and signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN 2006) which urges States to reallocate resourcing to inclusive education, and to reduce segregation. In this article, I examine the policy reforms in each country and analyse aggregated and disaggregated student placement data within each context to consider the impact of these reforms for different groups of students. Results show that the different reform journeys in each context produced different outcomes for students in each country, with segregation increasing in Australia and decreasing in the USA. The results also suggest that the impact of these policies has not been proportionate across categories as students on the Autism Spectrum are more likely to experience educational segregation or exclusion in both countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• legislation
• school placement
• disability
• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kate de Bruin is a researcher in inclusion and disability in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. She has taught in secondary school and higher education for two decades. Kate’s research focuses on inclusive education in policy and practice, examining system-level, school-level, and classroom practices that are supported by evidence, and that promote quality and equity for all students, with specific attention to students with a disability. She has worked with Commonwealth, State, and Catholic Education Departments on projects such as: the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data for Students with Disabilities Moderation Resource, the Victorian Inclusion Support Programme, Models of School Support, and Tier Two Literacy Interventions in Australian Schools. Kate regularly provides professional learning to school teachers, and she writes for both academics as well as readers from the general public. She sits on the Academic Advisory Board for All Means All: The Australian Alliance for Inclusive Education.

ORCID

Kate de Bruin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3299-7805