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National Policy Statement on Appropriate Inclusion

The National Education Association is committed to equal educational opportunity, the highest quality education, and a safe learning environment for all students. The Association supports and encourages appropriate inclusion. Appropriate inclusion is characterized by practices and programs which provide for the following on a sustained basis.

• A full continuum of placement options and services within each option. Placement and services must be determined for each student by a team that includes all stakeholders and must be specified in the Individualized Education Program (IEP).
• Appropriate professional development, as part of normal work activity, of all educators and support staff associated with such programs. Appropriate training must also be provided for administrators, parents, and other stakeholders.
• Adequate time, as part of the normal school day, to engage in coordinated and collaborative planning on behalf of all students.
• Class sizes that are responsive to student needs.
• Staff and technical assistance that is specifically appropriate to student and teacher needs.

Inclusion practices and programs which lack these fundamental characteristics are inappropriate and must end.

Adopted by the NEA Representative Assembly,
July 1994