Indicators of High-Quality Inclusion
Children with disabilities receive care in a variety of settings including schools, childcare centers, Head Start programs, and family child care environments. Yet, families encounter difficulties in securing care for their children with disabilities, leading to a reliance on fragmented settings and services. Children with disabilities from underserved communities face challenges in receiving equitable and inclusive access, experiences and outcomes.
These four sets of indicators were designed by a group of national partners to respond to the evolving needs of the early childhood education system. The Inclusion Indicators should be used as a capacity building tool rather than a performance checklist or assessment. The Inclusion Indicators help teams implement inclusive practices at all system levels: state, community, local program, and environments where children receive care. They also help teams discuss barriers to inclusion and develop effective solutions. The Inclusion Indicators are written broadly enough to allow state, community, and local program teams to implement inclusion in various settings, and specifically enough to be a coaching tool once implementation plans are developed.
The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education have underscored the importance of each agency to support children with disabilities. The 2023 Joint Policy Statement on the Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs is a detailed resource that outlines the beliefs, research, requirements, and strategies that states, and communities should undertake to ensure the inclusion of infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities in high-quality early childhood programs.
"Disability is a natural part of the human experience and in no way diminishes the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society. Improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our national policy of ensuring equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities."
Indicators of High-Quality Inclusion
- State Indicators
- Community Indicators
- Local Program Indicators
- Early Care and Education Environment Indicators
- Glossary
Key Assumptions About Teaching and Learning
The Inclusion Indicators are developed from several key assumptions about teaching and learning in the early childhood system. They have been adapted to support the implementation of the Inclusion Indicators in a birth–8 system.
Adapted from the Council of Chief State School Officers' Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Model Core Teaching Standards and Learning Progressions for Teachers 1.0 (2013).
Teaching and learning are complex.
Children, families, and providers are autonomous and unique. Social experiences drive how children learn and develop. Providers must pay close attention to the assumptions they bring to the teaching and learning experience. Authentic and affirming experiences and environments set the stage for children's learning. Teaching occurs within this dynamic. Learning depends on how these experiences are shared.
Teaching expertise is learned, developed over time and not linear.
Professional development is key to supporting a learning process for providers. Building capacity for effective teaching takes time, energy, and resources. The Inclusion Indicators support creating a system that provides the time and space to develop teaching expertise.
Growth occurs by reflecting on experience, feedback, or individual or group professional learning experiences.
Teaching expertise is gained through an engaged process with opportunities to observe, practice, reflect, and try again. Capacity building is an individual process or shared group process which is clear, intentional, and non-evaluative.
Development depends on context, particularly in levels of support.
Building capacity depends on the conditions under which the provider is learning. Provider learning is more likely to occur where provider wellness is a central consideration. The Inclusion Indicators acknowledge that building teaching expertise requires both training and coaching implemented over time.
It's about provider practice and not the individual provider.
The Inclusion Indicators help ensure that the entire system supports building teacher practices and capacity. Provider success in building provider capacity is the responsibility of the entire system. The success of the provider is based on how effectively policies and processes across the system are implemented.
The Foundation for Inclusion in Early Childhood Programs
Young children with disabilities must be given access to the early childhood programs, services, and experiences that children without disabilities have within a State or local community. Specifically, high-quality inclusive early childhood programs are ones that:
- Include children with disabilities in early childhood programs they would participate in if they did not have a disability, so they can learn together with their peers without disabilities;
- Provide high-quality teaching and learning environments that support children's development and allow all children to meet high expectations;
- Intentionally promote children's participation in all learning and social activities, facilitated by individualized accommodations and differentiated interventions and instruction;
- Use high-quality, evidence-based services and supports that are developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive and that foster children's—
- acquisition and use of knowledge and skills,
- use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs,
- positive social emotional skills, including friendships with peers, and
- sense of belonging;
- Provide services and supports to children with disabilities in early childhood programs with peers without disabilities, and within daily routines and learning and social activities;
- Recognize families as collaborative partners, experts, and engaged decision-makers in their children's lives and value and treat children with disabilities and their families with respect; and
- Ensure supports, such as screening and identification processes, early childhood program and school partnerships, access to and use of data, and PD are in place to enable early childhood programs and providers to successfully include children with disabilities and their families."
Suggested citation:
Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, & National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations (2023). Indicators of High-Quality Inclusion. Retrieved from https://ectacenter.org/topics/inclusion/indicators.asp
The contents of this page were developed under a cooperative agreements #H326P220002 (ECTA Center) and #H326B220002 (NCPMI), from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.