SEPARATION ANXIETYARE DISABLED PUPILS IN A CLASS BY THEMSELVES?

Yet the idea has been difficult to install. Jean Parker, head of the Colorado Cross-Disabilities Association, says her organization began banging against Jeffco's walls in particular because the district wasn't closing the gap soon enough. "It became more and more apparent that a lot of people were experiencing the treatment that was outlawed twenty years ago," she says.

Much of the recent campaign against Jeffco has revolved around trying to close down the district's Miller, Walters and Weiland schools. The Association for Community Living (the local ARC chapter) vowed to shut them a half-dozen years ago after convincing Denver to close its last such school. Although that pressure has since dissipated, the parents' and advocacy groups calling for full integration of handicapped students recently have begun to step up their efforts once again.

Last month the Cross-Disabilities Association and several parents picketed the annual convention of the Council on Exceptional Children in Denver because the council has refused to endorse a mission statement embracing full inclusion for all students. And last year a group of parents submitted a similar mission statement for the state board of education to adopt, which the board refused.

Such official resistance to an idea as simple as permitting disabled kids to learn alongside children who aren't puzzles true believers. "If we define inclusion as being part of the community school and having appropriate role models versus segregation, then it's really hard to say that inclusion is really not good for some kids," says Marsha Tewell, a parent advocate associated with the ACL. "If inclusion is carried through properly, there's nothing bad about it."

end of part 1