Students with Disabilities: Reversing a History of School as a Risk to Mental Health

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Persons with disabilities have, throughout history, been exposed to segregation, harassment, and brutal maltreatment. Few opportunities existed whereby meaningful community involvement was a viable option. Over the course of centuries, little changed for far too many. Legislation rapidly snowballed over the past hundred years, decreasing persecution and, even more recently promoting individual rights and access rather than minimizing mistreatment. School legislation and compulsory education have arguably had more impact on improving outcomes for youth with disabilities than any other political or social realm, and have recently moved from the older philosophy of mainstreaming to the current model of inclusion. This reflects a significant improvement, but has to be fully implemented in vivo or in vitro.