Bancroft Elementary School has grades K-6 and houses a large number of students. In addition to its regular classes, Bancroft has three classrooms for students with special problems. One is for learning-disabled students, one for physically handicapped students, and one for behavior-disordered (BD) students.

At a recent teachers meeting, Bancroft teachers and administrators discussed a statewide mandate that "special students" be mainstreamed-that is, put in regular classrooms. Some teachers were concerned about mainstreaming, because they felt that these students might disrupt classes. The principal decided to bring in a specialist to explain the procedure and how it would work.

The specialist, Maryann Herzog, told the teachers that the most seriously handicapped students would be in the regular classrooms for only a small part of the day and would be accompanied by an aid. This arrangement would apply only to the physically handicapped and learning-disabled students, not to the behavior-disordered students. In dealing with these students, teachers were to use their regular disciplinary methods.

Behavior-disordered students have an unexplained inability to learn, relationship problems, inappropriate behaviors such as anger, and may be depressed and fearful. They have poor academic outcomes, are excluded by other students, and have the highest dropout rate. The condition is four times more likely to be found in boys, and the number of children with behavior disorders has increased 50 percent since 1977.

Some teachers were not reassured by what Maryann Herzog told them. Irv Katts was one. Irv had taught for a few years in another state where he had dealt with some BD students. He had found them very difficult. They needed a lot of attention and often took a large part of the day to deal with. Other students in the classroom did not get the teacher's time. He also had seen the "regular" students tease special students until they cried. He knew as well that the special classrooms in which the BD students are isolated have a lower teacher-to-student ratio.

Irv asked some of the teachers at Bancroft to stay after the meeting, and he told them of his experiences.

1. What should the teachers do?
2. Should Irv have told them about his experiences?
3. What options might the state have other than mainstreaming?
4. If your child were classified as "special education," would you want him or her mainstreamed? Why or why not?
5. In some high schools, students with behavior problems are so disruptive that they are isolated in the building with special teachers and with "bodyguards" who follow them even to lunch and the restroom. Does this seem reasonable to you?