In the current education policy environment, inclusion -- that is the situation in which all disabled children and young people attend their local school and there is no alternative form of provision -- is widely accepted as best representing a just state of affairs as regards where these children go to school; any alternative circumstances are…

In 1996 the New Zealand government announced the aim of achieving a "world class inclusive education system" in its new policy, Special Education 2000 (SE2000). The use of the language of inclusion in SE2000 was a new departure in the official policy lexicon and signalled that New Zealand had joined other countries in embracing the…

Special Education 2000 (SE2000), New Zealand's first official special education policy, declared the aim of achieving a "world class inclusive education system". It would seem that, by implication at least, the intention of the policy was to achieve full inclusion of all disabled children in mainstream educational settings and thus,…

In this article I will argue that New Zealand's Special Education 2000 (SE2000) policy demonstrates the way in which seemingly just and fair policies can lead to occurrences of injustice and unfairness towards some of those whom they impact. What this debate turns on is the justice of a policy which takes as its starting point the unquestioned…

Special school provision for children and young people with special educational needs is an anomaly that exists in many inclusive education systems; this type of educational provision has proved to be resilient even though, with reference to children and young people with special educational needs, there is almost universal acceptance of the…

In this article we describe the processes and outcomes of the development of the "New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars for Students with Special Education Needs". The project focused on teachers working with students described as working long term at Level 1 in the "New Zealand Curriculum". Earlier research had shown that teachers…