Alternative terms: Inclusion, Mainstreaming

General education settings in which students identified as having disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities; mild/moderate/severe mental retardation; serious emotional disturbance; orthopedically, visually, hearing impaired) are placed to receive instruction for all or part of their educational program.

In 1975, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 94-142, popularly known as the Education for AH Handicapped Children Act, that required every school district in the country to insure that students with disabilities are educated alongside their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate. It decreed that "special" classes or schools be used only when special education students cannot achieve satisfactorily in general education settings. This law was reenacted as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (PL 101-476) in 1990.

The current inclusion movement that has come to be known as the "Regular Education Initiative" (REI) was triggered by Madeline Will's call for...