·        Co-teaching provides appropriate levels of support for many students with disabilities and other students who struggle in school but do not qualify for special education services benefit from the support and expertise of both teachers. (GA. Dept. of Education, 2006)

·        In an Ideal inclusion classroom, students benefit from more strategic instruction than one teacher can provide because the teacher-student ratio has been cut in half. The co-teachers can respond to the specific needs of students within the smaller groups than could one teacher alone. The approaches will look different depending on the curriculum standards being addressed and the instructional activities during any particular lesson. (GA Dept. of Education, 2006)

·        Students gain socialization skills and learn appropriate behavior by watching role models in their peers. The student also gains more individualized attention during small group with staff support. (Meadows, 2007)

·        Co-teaching allows personalities to bond with students and the student is exposed to Grade Level Standards through differentiation. (Meadows, 2007)

·        Co-teaching results in positive gains such as increased and ,ore meaningful social interaction.(Council for Exceptional Children,2007)

·        Inclusion is one aspect of accessing the general education curriculum for students with disabilities. (Council for Exceptional Children,2007) Inclusion also involves young children “belonging, being valued, and having choices.(Council for Exceptional Children, 2007)

·        Students can learn from other students. This is called Peer teaching and it has proven to be effective because the student with the disability wants to perform as well as the student without a disability. (Meadows, 2007)

·        Highly successful inclusion classrooms make effective use of peers. Peers can be helpful in supporting the needs of students with physical disabilities, and reinforcing learning through tutoring or group learning processes. Peer meditation is an effective means for increasing opportunities to respond, providing effective learning models, and offering additional explanations and discourse to facilitate higher level understanding. (Mastropireri and Scruggs, 2001)

·        Being in the same location with same or similar programming as children without disabilities ensures that students with disabilities are receiving some of the same instruction and interaction with typical peers, even if materials adapted or curriculum has to be altered to meet the individual needs of young children with disabilities.(Council for Exceptional Children, 2007)

·        Inclusion ensures access to the general education curriculum, an important consideration in recent IDEA amendments. Inclusion can also provide opportunities for expanding social networks and forming new friendships.(Mastropireri and Scruggs, 2001)

·        The inclusion set up allows more acceptable behaviors to be modeled on a regular basis (Barry, 2002)

·        Another benefit of co- teaching is that both NCLB and IDEA require that all teachers, including special education teachers, must be highly qualified in the core academic they teach this changed the rules for special education teachers. Legislation required that all teachers be highly qualified. This changed the “highly qualified” requirement as follows; 1. Teachers who only teach students with the most significant cognitive disabilities can be considered “highly qualified” if they meet credentialing requirements that are similar to elementary teachers. 2.)Special Education teachers who provide consultative services to general education teachers in a co-teaching arrangement do not have to be “highly qualified” in the subject matter, as long as that general education teacher has that credential. (GA Dept. of Education, 2006)

·        The co-teaching process decreases the work load of the general teacher and increases the pleasure of teaching (Barry, 2002)

·        An effective co teaching class may also include splitting the classroom into two groups of equal size ( both groups including students with and without disabilities).Both teachers lead their separate groups in the same instructional activities by covering the same critical skills and concepts. This way students in both groups have more opportunities for practice and feedback than if one teacher leads the entire class. (U.S. Dept. of Education,2006)