Inclusion is at most an implicit concept in state and federal education law, and we have no widely agreed-upon definition of inclusion that is applied in all environments in which children with disabilities and those without disabilities come together. Inclusion is a goal that only some of the schools and programs identifying themselves as inclusive have achieved. The successful ones have been able to make creative use of resources and collaborative approaches. The Changing Social Context Among all students with disabilities, only about half are diagnosed with disability-related problems that began before they were 6 years old. When children begin school, they enter the door of social research that accompanies publicly funded services.
Researchers study demographics, health status, and educational and developmental progress.
Among families with these risk factors, there is a higher percentage of children with identifiable disabilities and a greatly disproportionate number of children who are made eligible for special education and related services because of poor performance on developmental tests. During the past decade, according to data collected through the national Kids Count Project, conditions that place families under stress have greatly increased. The rate of low weight births has increased despite focused efforts in many states to bring more women into timely prenatal care. Birth rates for unmarried teenagers were rising until recently, and the share of families headed by single parents is still increasing. About 1 of every 6 children lived in a household with no adult male present, and about 1 of every 14 lived in a neighborhood where more than half of all families with children were female-headed.