High-incidence disabilities: Resource and/or Inclusion

Special education teachers who work with students in high-incidence disability areas (learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, and speech-language disorders) may work in either an inclusive or resource environment.

In an inclusive environment they co-teach with a general education teacher, allowing students with disabilities to stay in the general education classroom throughout the school day. There are a variety of co-teaching models available so that teamed teachers can find and use the model that works best for them and meets the needs of the students with disabilities in the classroom.

Resource environments allow the special education teacher to pull students out of the general classroom and teach them in a quieter, more structured location. In some cases, special education teachers may participate in both types of environments within the same school day—co-teaching in one classroom in an inclusion model and pulling students out of another classroom later in the day in a resource model.