ABSTRACT

In this chapter, Nancy Marlett and Denise Buchner discuss an aspect of the changing funding policies towards special education in the province of Alberta in Canada. They outline how in the late 1970s pressures from parents coincided with the availability of funds to force the inclusion of all children with severe disabilities within local systems of education. The funding formula adopted by Alberta provided an incentive for this inclusion to be within neighbourhood mainstream schools. The mid-1980s witnessed a change in funding prompted by the recession, a decline in service, and a change in attitude except in small authorities who had taken on a culture of ‘inclusion’.