Local school administrators and academic observers shared some of what they have learned about this trend so far.
Some kids are too medically frail to be in mainstream classes.
Some kids just don't do well in a regular class setting. Martin Cavanaugh, assistant superintendent of student services for the Elk Grove Unified School District, agrees that mainstreaming is not a budgetary disaster. Parents are providing the real push behind the trend. That's hard to disagree with. Perhaps the brightest part of the emerging picture of mainstreaming is the way kids with disabilities fit in, according to John Sayler, the director of special education in the San Juan Unified School District.