Exploring dimensions of access within restrictive spaces of schooling

The current way of "doing" inclusive education in many US public schools includes re-arranging the schooling spaces where a young person is receiving their educational services. Though it is well accepted in US public schools that special education programs and services may occur at any place, many schools and programs are still set up to provide specialized educational services in a specific location, referred to as a restrictive educational program. In this chapter, the authors use the lens of critical spatial theory alongside a Disability Studies in education framework to explore the continued maintenance of restrictive educational programs in schools which promote inclusive policies. Collected narrative ethnographic interviews from youth (aged 17-18) who identify as disabled, and visual data from the field site, are analyzed as a way of attending to the spaces themselves and their inhabitants. The authors explore the social and educational processes within restrictive educational programs and how they help to constitute and reconstitute the meaning of the spaces themselves. This demonstrates the potentiality of all spaces, such that determinations of inclusionary or exclusionary practices do not precede their multifaceted enactments within those spaces.