THE EXTENT AND NATURE OF PRESCHOOL MAINSTREAMING - A SURVEY OF GENERAL EARLY EDUCATORS

This article describes a mail survey of general early childhood educat ors to determine the extent to which they are and have been engaged in preschool mainstreaming. Four groups of early childhood educators wer e surveyed: those employed by Head Start, public school pre-kindergart en, public school kindergarten, and community preschool/child care pro grams. Participants were randomly selected from the nine U.S. Bureau o f the Census regions. Of the 893 mailed questionnaires, 483 (54.1 %) w ere returned and coded. The results indicated responding programs repo rted enrolling a child with a diagnosed disability, (b) the percentage of mainstreamed programs increased across the five years studied, (c) children from all diagnostic categories listed on the survey were enr olled in some programs, (d) the diagnostic category of speech/language impaired was the most frequently reported category followed by develo pmental delays and behavior disorders, and (e) the ages of enrolled ch ildren with diagnosed disabilities varied by program type. The limitat ions of these findings and their implications for preschool mainstream ing are discussed.