ABSTRACT
One necessary factor in the impetus to integrate handicapped children is the existence of segregated forms of special provision. Segregation can occur at very many different levels and it is important to remember that within any school there may be groupings and divisions which effectively bar some children from a full mainstream curriculum. This may be through rigid streaming which reduces options or through various forms of special needs provision which separate out some children for at least part of their education. Even in some special schools there may be groups-such as special care classes-whose educational diet may be very different from the rest. The attempts to reduce this kind of internal segregation through in-class support are discussed in Chapter 6. In this chapter our chief focus is the more widely acknowledged segregation which takes the form of completely separate schooling for some pupils and on the issues which need to be examined when these pupils become candidates for integration into ordinary schools.
