Best Practices for Inclusive Classrooms

Inclusion starts with the belief that all students have the right to feel safe, supported, and included at school. Inclusion allows students with disabilities to share a truly integrated learning experience in general education classrooms with their peers to the greatest extent possible.

How to Create Inclusion in the Classroom

All school staff have an important role in making inclusion services successful for all students. Collaboration among special education and general education teachers is especially critical in creating effective, inclusive classrooms. While instructional goals are individually determined for each student with a disability, the same basic learner outcomes and standards apply to all students in an inclusive classroom. Many inclusion strategies are either modifications or accommodations.

When working towards inclusion, a number of factors should be considered, including:

• Learning Environment
• Lesson Plans
• Presentation of the Lessons
• Lesson Materials
• Assessment of Students’ Knowledge

Many inclusion best practices for students with special needs often benefit general education students as well. Successfully implemented inclusion services can actually improve the quality of education for all students.

Creating an Inclusive Classroom

To ensure all students, including those with special needs, thrive in a general education setting, it’s essential to incorporate a range of strategies and supports that promote accessibility and engagement. Some key approaches include:

• Create customized instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to ensure they work for all students.
• Encourage cooperative learning and peer tutoring, allowing students to use their unique strengths to work as a team with their peers.
• Implement tiered lessons that teach the same concepts with multiple levels of complexity, giving students the choice to learn at a level that challenges, but does not overwhelm, them.
• Teach learning strategies intentionally to help special education students become independent and successful in a general education setting.