For a generation, national legislation has moved "vigorously" to compel schools to place students with disabilities in the "least restrictive environment." For students with mild disabilities, this placement usually means including them in general education classrooms and teaching them according to the general curriculum. Over the same period, leading educators have stressed that discovery methods of teaching and high-level thinking skills should be used in the elementary classroom. These two factors--students with disabilities in the classroom and the use of a discovery method of social studies instruction--create a challenge for elementary teachers. Not only must they teach to a class with a wide variety of abilities, but also ensure that all students are able to learn the social studies content in the curriculum for a specific grade. The purpose of this article is to assist teachers with this challenge by reviewing the characteristics of students with mild disabilities and discussing some recommendations for guiding social studies instruction with these students in the general classroom. (Contains 24 notes.)