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Parent Views on the Placement of Students with Special Needs in Regular Classrooms at an Australian Primary School

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Susan Wright  and
Jeff Sigafoos
Susan Wright
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Jeff Sigafoos*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
*
Address for correspondence: to Jeff Sigafoos, Schonell Special Education Research Centre. The University cf Queensland. Qld 4072. Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The present study surveyed the views of parents about the education of students with special needs in regular classrooms. The survey involved 81 parents of students without disabilities and 29 parents of students with special needs. The children attended an Australian primary school. The school provided special education to 35 students with special needs and some of their education was provided in regular classrooms. Both groups of parents provided a range of supportive comments, but also expressed concerns about the implementation of special education in regular classrooms. Specific concerns included the extra time and added stress of educating children with special needs in the regular classroom, the potential disruption and disadvantage to other students, and the lack of support and resources, which may decrease the amount of learning. These views are consistent with those expressed by teachers and students without special needs as reported in the companion paper (Wright & Sigafoos, 1997) to the present study.

Type
Research Article
Information
Australasian Journal of Special Education , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , 1998 , pp. 30 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © The Australian Association of Special Education 1998

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