The Impact of Inclusive Education Practices on Students With ASD 'S Outcomes: Report From the ELENA French Cohort Study

Inclusive education is largely promoted in the field of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but scientific and empiric studies about the impact of school inclusion on the children's outcome are lacking. We studied the effect of the type of inclusion (regular classroom vs. special education classroom) in a sample of 356 children with ASD over a three-years period. Results first showed that, when comparing both groups at baseline, children in special education classes were older, had a higher level of challenging behaviors and came from lower socioeconomic status families. Once matched through propensity score, children in special classrooms had significantly lower communication and daily living skills than children in ordinary classrooms after 3 years, whereas there was no significant difference in socialization skills and in IQ. Overall, placement in a regular education classroom was positive for most children, however there is a high inter-individual variability and it is very unlikely that inclusive settings are by default superior for all children with special needs. These results, emphasizing the crucial role of the mainstream milieu, cannot be considered definitive and further studies are needed to address this critical educational policy issue. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02625116.