Celebrating inclusion

Advocates for students with disabilities are often at odds with the Department of Education about how those children can be best served in the city's public schools. But today a parent advocacy group and the Department of Education came together in a collaboration to celebrate inclusion for all students.

It started with a contest jointly sponsored by the advocacy group Parents for Inclusive Education and the DOE's Office for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners, headed by Laura Rodriguez. They invited students to answer the question: "How can your school help to make sure all students with disabilities are welcomed and valued members of the school community?"

Hundreds of students responded, sending in poems, essays, video clips, and other forms of artwork. Today their achievements were celebrated at an event held at Scholastic.

"We couldn't have done it without the DOE," said one of the event organizers, parent Jaclyn Okin Barney. She said that Schools' Chancellor Joel Klein spoke of a "poignant piece" written by a student professing that all kids deserve opportunities.

"In one student essay I read, a student wrote: 'If only students and teachers alike could see that all kids deserve the same opportunities as everyone else. The child in the wheelchair could be the principal of our school,'" Klein said. "We will never know unless the schools give these kids the same chances as everyone else. And I would add that that child could be Chancellor, too. That's exactly why we're here today. To celebrate the benefits of attending schools that include both disabled and non-disabled students."

The chancellor went on to reference the new special education initiative that will be rolled out in 250 schools next fall. "In New York City, under Laura Rodriguez, we are hoping for every school to be an inclusion school. By 2011, we hope be an ‘inclusion district.'"

Parents and advocates who today celebrated with students and DOE officials, will be closely following the reform efforts, hoping that students in special education fare well and that such collaborations continue.

"It was a very public statement of the DOE's growing commitment to inclusion, said Maggie Moroff of the ARISE Coalition. "The event itself was really about the children - with students speaking and performing. One student stood on stage and talked about his, and his friends', strengths as students, and concluded by telling us that despite his own disability he'll be graduating with a Regents Diploma next month, and attending college next year. That is the goal of all parents, and advocates. And now the DOE, in the reform, appears to be embracing that same goal."

Click here to see the full catalogue of student work.

Were you at today's event? Please share your thoughts in comments below.