In the past, it was quite common for children with disabilities to be institutionalized or home schooled (Yell, Rogers, and Rogers, 1998). Then, in the early twentieth century, many compulsory attendance laws were passed that enabled some of the children with disabilities to attend public schools (Yell, Rogers, and Rogers, 1998). However, in 1919, the Supreme Court declared, in Beattie v. Board of Education, that a school could exclude a child who had a condition that caused him to drool, have face contortions, and slurred speech. This ruling enabled schools to exclude some handicapped children (Yell, Rogers, and Rogers, 1998). Later, in 1975, congress passed and former President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which led to special education programs in public schools (Yell, Rogers, and Rogers, 1998). .
These special education programs essentially segregated the disabled students from the general classrooms in public schools, but did provide more individualized attention along with different educational standards. Some advocates of the handicapped are seeking to replace these special education programs with the full inclusion of handicapped children into regular classrooms (Odette, 1997). The Education for All Handicapped Children Act, in 1997, was reinstated as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (Dock, and Peters, 1997). Unfortunately, in Delaware, during the 1993 school year, only 28 percent of students with disabilities were taught in a segregated public school special education program, while the other 72 percent were educated in "separate settings" (Dock, and Peters, 1997). .
Since the reinstatement of IDEA, the Delaware Department of Education established the Delaware Inclusion Project (Dock, and Peters, 1997). Dock, and Peters, (1997), of the Delaware Department of Education, claim that the Delaware Inclusion Project states that "all students with disabilities will have the opportunity to participate in general education settings and activities with their peers and that such inclusion will lead to positive social and educational outcomes for both students with disabilities and those without disabilities" (p.
