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More and more students with disabilities are learning alongside their non-disabled peers in school, but that depends on the disability. Federal data shows students with certain severe disabilities are still largely being educated separately. That's a problem because for decades, research has shown that including all students in the same classroom benefits all students. NPR's Jonaki Mehta spent time with two elementary schoolers who show what can be gained from inclusion in the classroom.
JONAKI MEHTA, BYLINE: Adaline Whitmer and Kellen Hedler both attend public schools in Oklahoma. Kellen just turned 11. He wears red-rimmed glasses, is pretty outgoing, and he plays all kinds of sports.
KELLEN HEDLER: Basketball and soccer, baseball and bowling.
MEHTA: Bowling?
KELLEN: Yeah.
MEHTA: Adaline is 7 years old with long blonde hair. She's observant and kind of shy, and she loves cheerleading.
ADALINE WHITMER: Again.
MEHTA: Again.
Adaline mostly communicates using sign language, but she's starting to talk. She and Kellen both have Down syndrome, a genetic condition that comes with a range of physical and developmental challenges. They both go to public school less than two hours away from each other. But their experience in the classroom - it's a world apart. I'm going to start with Adaline's story and the very first time her mom, Kristen Whitmer, picked Adaline up from kindergarten a couple years ago. She lined up with all the other parents at the front of the building.
KRISTEN WHITMER: And I get a phone call, and they're, like, where are you? I was, like, well, I'm in the car line. I'll be there in a minute, you know? And they're like, oh, no, no, no, y'all go to the back of the building.
MEHTA: Kristen was shocked that the default was to separate Adaline. Earlier this year, the school finally said Kristen could choose to pick up Adaline with the other students. It's a choice Adaline's school district, Bixby Public Schools, told NPR parents have always had. But Kristen says it's one of the many ways Adaline has been segregated at school.
WHITMER: I say segregated because it is segregated from the typically developing population. And, yes, she's in general education only 47.18% of her day.
MEHTA: Adaline spends most of her day in a separate room with other students with disabilities instead of with her first-grade peers. It's driven Kristen to find places outside of school where her daughter can feel included.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Four, five, six, seven, eight, jump.
MEHTA: This past summer, Adaline began cheering at a local gym near her suburb just outside of Tulsa.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yeah.
MEHTA: With help from a peer buddy, she's learning to do somersaults and dance moves and how to be part of a team.
WHITMER: Getting to watch her kind of come out of that shell has been amazing.
MEHTA: Kristen says Adaline has never experienced that kind of inclusion at school. She thinks that's a big reason Adaline isn't progressing as much as she could, both academically and socially.
WHITMER: We want them to look at our children as general education students first. Let's start there, and then let's figure out how we can support them there.
MEHTA: In fact, that's what federal law recommends. It says students with disabilities should be learning with their typically developing peers as much as possible. At least 80% of the day is a goal driven by federal policy. And remember; Adaline is only included in the general ed setting for less than half her day.
JENNIFER KURTH: People have been studying this question of inclusion for 50 years now.
MEHTA: That's Jennifer Kurth, a professor of special education at the University of Kansas.
KURTH: Study after study is showing that there's no harm to being included, but there's great risks of harm to being segregated. Kids who were included develop better academic skills, better communication skills, better social skills - just kind of everything we try to measure.
MEHTA: Kurth says that's especially true for students with disabilities like Down syndrome. And for kids in inclusive classrooms who don't have disabilities...
KURTH: Those students have almost no differences in terms of their academic skills or sometimes slightly improved academic or social outcomes.
MEHTA: But according to public data, Adaline's school district is falling short of federally driven goals for inclusion of special education students.
WHITMER: We used to say based on race, people couldn't learn stuff or they had to be segregated. We know it's not true. So why is it OK that we're still treating an individual differently based upon having an extra chromosome or having a different way that they need to learn?
MEHTA: Bixby Public Schools tells NPR they, quote, "disagree with the characterization that any child is being segregated based on their individual educational placement" and that they offer a range of specialized services based on student needs and abilities, sometimes in special settings.
ADAM FREDERICK: Come on, in, please.
MEHTA: Just a couple hours southwest of Tulsa, Kellen Hedler, the 11-year-old we met earlier, is having a very different school experience from Adaline.
FREDERICK: Good morning, Kellen.
KELLEN: Good morning.
MEHTA: Kellen goes to Frontier Elementary just outside Oklahoma City. He spends most of his day in the classroom alongside his fourth-grade peers.
FREDERICK: Three plus three plus three. What is our total?
KELLEN: I know.
FREDERICK: Kellen, what's our total?
KELLEN: Nine.
FREDERICK: Nine. You got it.
MEHTA: There's a classroom assistant who's around for when Kellen needs support, but he's largely independent. His two classroom teachers, Adam Frederick and Robyn Fox, both work together and with one of Kellen's special ed teachers to make sure their lessons are meeting Kellen where he's at. Like, there was recently a test where students had to label continents on a map, something Mrs. Fox says Kellen wasn't yet ready to do.
ROBYN FOX: For Kellen, even with the word bank, it's still just not quite accommodated enough. So we just gave him a world map that had all the continents at the bottom, and it said, color Africa yellow. Color Asia orange.
MEHTA: That is a point of an accommodation - holding students with disabilities to the same benchmarks as their peers while making learning more accessible. Now, sometimes Kellen does need specialized instruction outside of his regular classrooms.
Where are you walking right now?
KELLEN: Mrs. Lobaugh.
MEHTA: Mrs. Lobaugh. That's your speech teacher?
KELLEN: Yes. We're reading.
MEHTA: You're reading. You like - I've heard you're...
This year one of Kellen's goals is to make transitions like these between classes without an adult. His mom, Kristy Hedler, says it's one of the many goals he's already meeting.
KRISTY HEDLER: Kellen's academic growth has been amazing. He's made progress across all areas. He's made very, very good friends.
MEHTA: When Kellen first transferred to this inclusive school, his reading skills were somewhat stagnant, and he was having a hard time recognizing common words. And now...
HEDLER: The reading has just exploded. Like, at home, he goes and he gets a book, and he's reading for enjoyment now.
MEHTA: Kristy pulls up a video of Kellen reading to her recently.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KELLEN: (Reading) Oh, no, says the art teacher.
HEDLER: He's not just reading words. He's participating in a story. You know what I mean?
MEHTA: Kristy chalks up that progress to a lot of hard work on Kellen's part and an inclusive environment that enables him to learn. Kellen's spending over 80% of his day in the general ed classroom, a target many schools struggle with. Now, inclusive classrooms are becoming more common in America's public schools. That's according to federal data. But inclusion has remained low for some students, including those with intellectual disabilities. For Kristy, inclusion at school is an essential way for Kellen to learn how to navigate the world.
HEDLER: At some point, the schooling stops. But we want them to have the opportunity to be productive members of their community, to have friendships, to live independently.
MEHTA: Kristy and Adaline's mom, Kristen, are both part of a group for parents of kids with disabilities. That's how they met, and they talk often. And recently, Kristen got the chance to meet Kellen.
WHITMER: And he's doing amazing. Like, that gives us hope because they have not always had an inclusive placement. But just with the right adults at the school, with the let's-try-this mentality, it's made a world of difference.
MEHTA: A difference they hope Adaline and other students like her will see one day soon. Jonaki Mehta, NPR News, Oklahoma.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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