Students created beautiful art together while working on fine motor skills to tear paper and create butterflies.
Hometown School provides an inclusive environment for students in special education, while allowing students with disabilities to participate in encore classes such as PE, art, music and library alongside their non-disabled peers. Reverse inclusion is the opposite. It provides opportunities for general education students to spend time participating in activities within special education classrooms. Research shows that there are many benefits to reverse inclusion. Scheduled and structured contact between typically developing and special-education students fosters positive relationships in the classroom and on the playground. Reverse inclusion provides a positive environment for the modeling of age-appropriate behaviors and typically developing students gain empathy by interacting with students who have different abilities.
On April 28, general education students were selected to participate in our first Reverse Inclusion Day. Three students, from each classroom, were chosen to go spend some time in different CASE (Communication, Academic, and Social Education) classrooms with our special needs students. They played games together, made cookies, created art projects and played outside at the park together. It was a special day for our CASE kiddos to be able to share with their general education friends what their rooms look like. There were so many giggles and smiles, as they enjoyed an afternoon together. Thank you to our CASE teachers and aides for making this day so special. We would also like to thank the parent who presented at the PTA meeting and suggested this idea to better our learning community.