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A Three-Ring Circus: Mainstreaming of Our Nation’s Classrooms The framework of education has changed a great deal over the last few decades. This change in the education system is partly based upon the fact that the best education possible should be given to all students, including those students with physical or learning disabilities. The term mainstreaming was first used in the 1970s and describes classrooms in which students with disabilities and students who do not have disabilities are together. According to Moore, Gilbreath, and Maiuri, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, reformed in 1997, calls for free and appropriate education for special needs students. The IDEA emphasizes a least restrictive environment, in which children with special needs are educated to the highest of their ability. This system is in constant use in many schools throughout the United States to fulfill the federal requirements that the United States government put in order to ensure that all students no matter if they have a physical, mental or learning disability be placed with and receive the same education as all other students under equal learning conditions (qtd in Toomey 1). Within the education system this issue of mainstre