Yep! And the whole time that this particular student is acting up in class the rest of the students aren't learning anything.
I believe it was called "mainstreaming" where kids with behavior problems were placed in regular classrooms so their fragile "self-esteem" wouldn't be damaged. The result is that one or two of these kids can hijack the entire class and waste untold hours throughout the year while the motivated kids sit in silence watching the clock tick away learning nothing.
Reason number 4,597 why I would never be a public school teacher.
Dead On.
That is not mainstreaming. Mainstreaming is taking a kid like my daughter who has brain damage and putting her in the regular classroom.
My daughter does not have behavior problems. She has a speech problem. She didn't learn to talk until she was 5, and it has affected her reading and writing. Instead of putting her in a special day class with kids with other issues where she wouldn't be challenged, they've kept her in the regular classroom.
She is one of the best behaved, and she is one of the best at math in her class. She does get pulled out for speech therapy, and she used to get pulled out for occupational therapy.
Growing up, I had a friend who was legally blind. She was also in the regular classroom, and the kids and teachers loved her. She had special equipment to help her read. The kids helped her do other things in the classroom. She was an inspiring person to know. When she was an adult, she got her master's degree in Speech Therapy.
Anyway, don't lump mainstreaming kids with special needs with kids who are behavior problems. I don't want my well-behaved kids in a classroom with misbehaving kids. I do accomodations can be made to teach some special needs kids in the regular classroom.