Inclusive Education Benefits All Children

by Judy Winter, Contributing Writer

Imagine a school district where special classrooms addressing learning differences and disabilities are things of the past. Here, all children learn and play side by side. Classroom teachers focus on meeting each student’s educational needs, and all students succeed.

That’s the vision of Everyone Together, a joint project of United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) Michigan and UCP of Metropolitan Detroit, funded by a grant from the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council. The five-year grant requires Everyone Together to build and support 16 parent networks statewide to promote greater student access to inclusive education for all children in Michigan. Underlying the project’s philosophy All Children/All Together/All the Time is the belief that students and communities benefit when ALL students are educated together.

Now in its second year, Everyone Together has established eight parent networks designed to raise awareness of inclusive education and promote best practices. One key goal is having unified parent groups work together more cohesively statewide to influence policy and funding decisions that create more inclusive educational practices. The groups include parents, community leaders, and education professionals committed to making inclusion work.

Carolyn Das and Laurie Stein

Lauri Stein and Carolyn Das are the Everyone Together project parent coordinators overseeing development of the statewide groups. Stein is a University of Michigan graduate and registered nurse who started the West Michigan Inclusion Network. Her oldest son Gene, 16, was born with Down syndrome and diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at age nine. While living in San Diego, Stein observed positive inclusion practices. She knew inclusion could work in Michigan. Today, Gene attends junior high school where he is fully included.

“I can’t imagine children being educated in any other way but in an inclusive environment,” Stein explains. “It is a passion of mine.”

Das, a former senior project manager for SBC (Ameritech), graduated from Michigan State University and lives in Farmington. Das admits she once expected her son Stephen, now 13, to live a segregated life because of his cerebral palsy. But Stephen’s first bus ride on a special school bus separating him from his peers helped change her mind.

“It just bothered me,” Das says of the pivotal experience. “What you experience as a child has such impact as an adult.” Stephen is now fully included in the seventh grade.

“Inclusion in our schools is about changing the communities of the future,” Das adds referring to the importance of the Everyone Together project. “It’s about Stephen’s right to belong.”

For more information, contact: Lauri Stein, UCP Michigan, (800) 828-2714 or (517) 203-1200, stein@upc.michigan.org or Carolyn Das, UCP of Metropolitan Detroit, (248) 557-5070, carolyndas@twmi.rr.com. For a listing of Everyone Together parent groups statewide, visit www.everyonetogether.org.

Judy Winter is an award-winning journalist and the recipient of the Michigan Council for Exceptional Children (MCEC) 2002 Exceptional Parent Award. Email her at jappwinter@aol.com or visit www.judywinter.com.

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