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How do you assign kids with the same disability to the same self-contained classroom? Check out this guide to find out.

School can be a tricky place to navigate. Students face challenges with technology overload, bullying peer pressure. The drive to excel academically is profound for many students and their families.

Students with special needs face all those challenges and more. Making sure that a student with special needs is correctly placed in the best classroom for their needs is paramount to their opportunity to learn and be successful. 

Special education teachers must look at a student’s ability, their disability, their needs and place them in the right classroom. Whether that means they have some mainstreaming, inclusion, or are in a self-contained classroom, their needs should come first. 

While there is a push for inclusion, others argue that students with special needs might better grow in a self-contained environment. Consider these placement options to learn more.

Placements of Students With Disabilities

After evaluating the student with several measurable tools, a district makes a placement for a student based on both the student’s abilities and their needs. A student’s IEP (Individualized Education Program) is set up to plan out what they need to learn.

Where can they best learn? What placement best matches their academic ability? What support might the student need to successfully function in that environment? These are all questions that must be considered when making a student’s placement.

Least Restrictive Environment

The least restrictive environment is a term used in the placement of special education students. The law says that a student with a disability should be placed in the least restrictive environment they can handle based on their abilities and their needs. 

Just because a student has a disability, doesn’t automatically remove them from learning with their nondisabled peers. It’s the opposite.

The disabled student should be placed in a school environment with the fewest number of restrictions, so they have the opportunity to learn in the same way as their nondisabled peers. Again, this is based on both their ability to function academically in that environment and what needs they have while in that environment.

Inclusion

Inclusion means the act of being included. Applied to the educational structure, inclusion means placing a student who has a disability in a classroom where students who don’t have a disability learn.  

Inclusion, as it applies to special education students, means they are included, for their learning in the regular education classroom. 

Mainstreaming

Mainstreaming is going to sound a lot like inclusion. The premise of mainstreaming is that you remove a child with a disability from a self-contained classroom or pull-out programs. They get their education while mainstreamed with regular students. 

Mainstream Versus Inclusion

Some use mainstreaming and inclusion synonymously. In fact, they are not quite the same thing. 

In a mainstreaming scenario, a special education student is in the regular education classroom or mainstream. He or she is doing the same work as the regular education students with the same level of support. 

While they may have an IEP, for all practical purposes for that subject they are functioning as a regular education student.

In an inclusion scenario, a student with a disability is placed in the regular education environment. It may be the least restrictive environment for them. But they may need the support of a special education teacher. That teacher may put in place accommodations or modifications. 

Accommodation means a student is learning the same material as their non-disabled peers. They might learn it differently. A modification for a student changes what they are expected to learn. 

Accommodations and modifications are built into the IEP with placements for students. 

Student Placements

When placing a student, the district must consider testing done on a student. Then the IEP plan is put into place. This should be based on data for academics, behavior, and disability. 

There are several things a school district should not use when placing a student. These include:

• type of disability
• the available services in the educational environment 
• how much space is available in any classroom environment
• the convenience of the placement

The foremost thing to consider is the needs of the student. Sometimes that means schools need to adapt or reconfigure their setting to meet the needs of a student. 

Self-Contained Placements

When mainstreaming and/or inclusion are not the right fit, a self-contained classroom might be the answer. 

Long ago, special education students might have been educated in a different building or setting. Then special education classrooms moved into buildings with regular education rooms. 

A self-contained classroom is where special education students are with a special education teacher. That teacher does the teaching of the academic subjects separate from the regular education setting. 

Often self-contained classrooms have fewer students. They have more than one teacher, or a teacher and support staff to work with students. 

A student might be placed in a self-contained room because they have more specific needs. They might not have the ability to handle the rigor, pace, or environment in a regular education classroom. 

Goals of Self-Contained Classrooms

Like any classroom, the goal of a self-contained classroom is to meet the needs of the child who is placed there. Students in self-contained classrooms have unique needs that prohibit them from succeeding in a regular education setting. 

The laws related to LRE (least restrictive environment) must still be considered if a child has a placement in a self-contained room. The special education teacher must consider ways to get them outside of that environment.

• lunch with regular education students
• special classes like gym, art or music
• outdoor playtime at recess

Ultimately, the goal of the self-contained classroom is to teach the child and with growth move them into the least restrictive environment.

Differences in Self-Contained Classrooms

There are many differences between a self-contained classroom and a regular education classroom. Those differences can range from the staff to class size to how the environment looks. 

First, self-contained classrooms are staffed with special education teachers. These are teachers who specialize in working with kids who have disabilities. Depending on the make-up of the students might change staffing.

Often self-contained classrooms will have paraeducators who work to support both the special education teacher and the students. 

Another key difference is the number of students in the class. The average class size in the U.S. is 23 with that number rising at higher grades. In a self-contained classroom, that number will be much smaller. 

While the laws vary from state to state, most self-contained rooms will not hold more than 15 students. In some cases, depending on the severity of the needs of the students, that number will be much lower. 

Another difference is what the classroom environment is like. Self-contained classrooms should work to help the student learn. Regular education classrooms might have too many stimuli, noise, or movement for some students with disabilities. 

A self-contained classroom might arrange desks differently, Post information differently, Students might have increased access to technology like computers or headphones to help aid in their learning. 

Types of Self-Contained Classrooms

Self-contained classrooms are most often set up based on the disability of the student. Schools might have self-contained rooms for students for a variety of needs:

• Learning disabilities
• Autism or autism spectrum disorders
• Emotional disabilities
• Cognitive impairments
• Significant physical impairment 
• Gifted and talented students

The real challenge is not only when to place a student, but also with whom. Often students with the same type of disability are placed into the same self-contained environments. So students on the autism spectrum are together while learning disabled students are in a different room. 

Doing these placements is not always black and white, however. Teachers must look at the unique needs and abilities of every student. They might even need to consider how students will interact and react to each other. 

Teachers at lower grades might have multiple grade levels of students in one room based on their ability in a particular subject. Students with autism or emotional impairment might be grouped in one self-contained environment to work on a particular set of behaviors or social skills. 

Grouping based on the needs of the child instead of strict grade level or ability is important for self-contained classes. Addressing their specific ability or behavioral needs best meets their needs versus placing them simply based on their age or grade. 

When Self-Contained Works

While trends in education have pushed for mainstreaming and inclusion, there are times when self-contained classrooms are a better choice for special education students. Of course, the laws related to the least restrictive environments must be followed. 

Many educators are finding that the push to move students with disabilities into regular education classrooms is not always the best fit. While they might have the academic ability, sometimes regular education rooms don’t fit for social or behavioral issues.

Some special education students, with the correct support, flourish in regular education classrooms. Others faced insurmountable challenges and will have more learning in a self-contained environment. 

This is where the special education teacher must place students carefully and with great thought. Where can a student best learn and grow? Will a regular education classroom allow them to flourish or overwhelm?

Self-Contained Classroom Option

Parents and educators must work together to build an IEP plan for a student. One that will address their disability and still provide opportunities to learn and develop. It may be a completely mainstream plan. Or it could be one with partial inclusion or a self-contained room. The student needs are paramount. 

In the past, the goal was to get students out of the self-contained classroom. Now educators are more carefully considering what will work best for the student and their needs. 

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