The volume will provide an examination of issues around how policy for inclusive education can be implemented in practice. In relation to different thematic policy areas considered in each chapter these questions will be considered: * What are the main policy issues for inclusive education? * What recommendations are there for addressing these issues? * What are the difficulties in implementing these recommendations? * How can these difficulties be overcome? Overall conclusions will focus on lessons learnt for supporting the implementation of policy for inclusive education and bridging the policy-practice gap.

It is now widely believed in many Western countries that the segregation of students with special educational needs is problematic, and that wherever possible these students should be educated alongside their peers in regular education settings. There has been a general move towards integrating special and regular education into one system that caters for a much wider range of students. But the outcomes in various countries have been very different. This book describes and evaluates these outcomes in the hope that teachers and other professionals may be able to profit from each other's experiences. The book provides both quantitative and qualitative information, analyzing the similarities and differences between integration practices in six Western countries: Italy, Denmark, Sweden, the United States, England and Wales, and the Netherlands. The editors discuss the factors that are critical to integration from a teacher perspective, and explore the aims and limitations of integration.