Mainstreaming is selectively placing disabled students into an education in a regular classroom atmosphere. Mainstreaming is not a part of the law; however, it is sometimes the most preferred practice. These special education students must gain the opportunity to be placed into these regular classrooms by proving they can keep up with the required workload given by the teacher. This provides the disabled student the opportunity to learn with peers of the same age with a more challenging curriculum. If these students are placed in a learning environment with other students that are not disabled could this help them develop more socially then if they were strictly learning with other disabled students?

If the student is placed in a special education classroom the entire day then they are being alienated from the rest of their peers. Down syndrome children could expand their social development if they were placed in a mainstreaming classroom. Many parents and educators were in favor of merging regular and special education into the same school system. Some argued that it only promoted inappropriate attitudes toward disabled students. Questions aroused such as, what effects would the disabled student have on classmates? Would these students be likely to disturbed the learning environment? Educators agreed these questions would only get answered if the regular classroom teacher and special education teacher worked together. Many strategies have been made to assure each student in a mainstreamed classroom successfully received an appropriate education.

Every student should have the opportunity to learn in the appropriate classroom setting. Mainstreaming gives disabled students the chance to become a part of a regular classroom that can challenge their overall intelligence. When disabled students, such as those with Down syndrome, learn in a special education classroom they are lacking the full ability to develop socially. Many people underestimate their intelligence and don’t realize that they have normal intellectual potential. If these disabled students were given a chance to express their aptitude in an environment with ordinary students then they would not only increase their social development but their intellectual development as well.