Restructuring education to better accommodate students with learning problems in regular classrooms has become a topic of some concern for professionals in special and regular education. Advocates of the Regular Education Initiative argue that problems in the current special education service delivery system mandate the need for addressing alternative approaches to providing special instruction to the large numbers of mildly handicapped students in America's schools. Those opposed to expanding the partnership between regular and special educators argue that current teacher training, attitudes, and administrative iiiiistructures work against efforts to place very many exceptional students in regular classrooms for instruction. We see value in both sides of the arguments that have been presented, and we are concerned that all the dialogue may not lead to action. We believe that what may be more important than winning the argument is how to respond to the critical issues raised by concerns about where to best educate students with problems leaming in regular classrooms. We believe that special students should be educated with students who are not exceptional to the maximum extent possible. In this article, we address system-level, school-level, and child-level concems that we believe must be addressed if efforts to operatlonalize this idea are going to be given a reasonable scientific test.
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