Inclusion and the L.E.P. Student

By Jose Manuel Torres

With all the hoopla and debate surrounding inclusion, as it relates to students with disabilities, I am perplexed that there has been so little discussion about educating limited-English-proficient, or L.E.P., students in so-called inclusive settings. On the contrary, there seems to be more discussion about increasing the segregation of these students than about bringing them into the mainstream of regular classrooms, as the concept of inclusion implies.

In a recent issue of Education Week , for example, one article describes a school system's plan to establish "newcomer centers" for L.E.P. students ("Dade Board Backs Makeshift Centers for New Immigrant Students," July 13, 1994) while another reports on the shortcomings of national assessments that fail to include students with disabilities ("More Special-Education Students in Test Pools Urged," July 13, 1994). The irony in the juxtapositioning of these stories is that the same rationale was given for including students in one as was given for excluding students in the other: "provide better service to students to improve outcomes."

"Newcomer" programs can be found from San Francisco to New York City. They aim to provide transitional "one-stop shopping" for immigrant students and their families--in other words, to make medical, social, mental-health, and other services available at one site. The best of these programs also provide native-language instruction and cultural-orientation and adaptation strategies for students. When I first heard about such centers, I liked the idea so much I wanted to go out and set up newcomer centers. It is no secret that getting these types of services to limited-English-proficient students and their families in one location, with interpreters, with translation services, and in culturally appropriate ways, is vitally important. But while I applaud the work that newcomer programs do, I am concerned about their...