Special school

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This article refers to schools that teach Special Education. For the Independent Dutch School system see Special school (Netherlands)

This refers to the type of schools who teach students that require a "Special Education", sometimes known as having Special Educational Needs (SEN). The Camphill special schools provide education for disabled children in a community setting. Although such schools still exist and serve important functions, many disabled students today attend regular schools under a practice called mainstreaming. The idea behind mainstreaming is to bring disabled students out of the isolation of special schools and into the "mainstream" of student life. Schools began to mainstream students with disabilities into regular classrooms. Students who previously might have attended special schools with other students with similar disabilities have begun to attend regular public schools in a major attempt at deinstitutionalization. These efforts are known as programs of inclusion.

See also: Special education

[edit] United States

Today, special schools serve a small portion of students whose special educational needs (SEN) are too intensive to be addressed appropriately in an in-district special education program. Students are placed in one of the following, listed from least restrictive to more restrictive:

Special class operated by another school district
A BOCES program
An approved Private School (day)
State Operated school
An approved Residential Placement

[edit] United Kingdom

Whilst many still argue that the those with SEN's receive a better education at specialist schools, they are falling out of favour in the UK and instead the pupils with SEN's are being integrated into mainstream schools. Those that argue for integration often claim that this provides a better all round education not only for those with SEN's but also the general pupil population through exposure to greater diversity, those against often claim that the primary reason is that it is a lot cheaper to place pupils with SEN's in a mainstream school rather than maintain separate establishments.

See also: List of schools in the United Kingdom