School Community Role In Implementing Inclusive Education

The basic principle of the emergence of inclusive education is to provide a solution to discriminatory treatment in education, especially for children with special needs to learn together with normal children regardless of differences they have. However, the implementation of inclusive education in Indonesia is still not optimal. The purpose of this study is to identify the role of school community to support the implementation of inclusive education. The subject of this research was teachers of inclusive school and parents of autistic child in a service center. Data were collected through interviews with teachers, and focus group discussions with parents. Data were descriptively and qualitatively analyzed. The results showed that parents of students with special need felt that they needed some supports from the community to accept their children's attendance in regular classrooms, to participate in educating students to empathize and become a source of social supports for students with special needs and to implement socialization in inclusive education. For school community, including teachers, educational staffs and students are expected to become a regular part of the supporting system for students at schools by taking them a good care, showing empathy and giving social support to students with special need. The role of parents with special need student is as a mediator with the school together with parents of regular students, therapist as well as in the initiator of promoting program enrollment and public school staffs. The community of parents with special need can also advocate inclusive education policies both at school and the educational board.