Inclusion, One Step at a Time: A Case Study of Communication and Decision Making Across Program Boundaries

A public school district relocated one of its early childhood special education classrooms to a private childcare facility in order to enable social interaction with typically developing children. The authors used an ecological framework and a qualitative method to study how planning, communication, and decision making across program boundaries took place. The first year of this partnership was characterized by a one-step-at-a-time approach to inclusion, with a minimum of formalized discussions and planning. This was due in part to the programs' disparate organizational and logistical practices. The greatest challenges to successful collaboration arose when the boundaries between programs became blurred and people's roles within the new ecological formation were not clearly defined.