School Districts' Inclusion Initiatives


Several specific initiatives illustrate the move to include more students with disabilities within the schools of Illinois’ Northern Suburban Special Education District.

» District level.
The NSSED administrative team has been restructured to promote innovation through collaboration. The director of programs role, which largely focused on the administration of self-contained programs, has been reimagined as the assistant superintendent of instructional design and innovation. The role now facilitates collaboration among various administrators in the cooperative’s 18 districts to develop integrated comprehensive systems in schools and promote greater access to the general education curriculum.

Additionally, a new position was created from reallocated resources: chief technology, communications and data services official.

Together, the two administrators co-lead the newly established Department of Learning, which focuses on all aspects of student learning and the promotion of inclusive practices across the cooperative and within NSSED programs and services.

» Lake Forest Elementary and High School Districts 67 and 115.
The catalyst for systemic change began with the local school board supporting the superintendent to conduct a study by an independent outside evaluator of their diverse learner population to better understand their student outcomes. The study led to several recommendations: Strengthen culture and acceptance of diverse learners; build the necessary infrastructure for all students to attend the same home school as nondisabled peers; and update policy and procedures around special education eligibility to promote more effective and efficient use of public funds.

Additionally, the two districts introduced new curricula across content areas, increased use of inclusive practices, strengthened social-emotional learning curricula and supports and developed co-planning and co-serving staff service delivery models.

As a result of these systemwide efforts, 99.5 percent of students are educated in their home schools, IEP rates have declined from 18 percent to 13 percent and the percentage of students with IEPs being educated in their general education environments for more than 80 percent of their day has increased from 61 percent to 80 percent over the past five years.

» Winnetka School District 36.
Administrators collaborated with the local school board to begin developing an integrated comprehensive system. This required board support for increasing capacity to improve supports and outcomes for students with complex needs.

Responsibilities among school personnel have shifted from work silos toward collaborative school-based support of students throughout the day. In one elementary school, social workers, art teachers, and music staff now take a greater role in the inclusion of all students by working directly with student support teams to meet student needs beyond their own classrooms, notably on transitions during the day.

The results: reduced behavioral incidents and an increase in successful transitions throughout the school day.


— KURT SCHNEIDER