What can happen when a child with disabilities is included in a traditional care setting with their peers without disabilities―where they can interact, learn, and play together in a universally designed environment, with adaptations, modifications, or accommodations built to support their full participation? For decades, the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Institute (FPG) has led the way, proving that with the right institutional support, technical assistance, professional development, implementation, and advocacy, young children both with and without disabilities thrive in remarkable ways when they’re in inclusive environments.

This May, the International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute will celebrate a quarter-century of FPG’s longstanding work in early childhood inclusion. The milestone event will reflect on and honor the progress made and look toward a future where every child truly belongs. This reflection allows us to recognize the voices and experiences of children with disabilities and their families, highlighting the critical contributions of individuals with disabilities, families, practitioners, policymakers, and many other leaders in the field who have worked tirelessly to create more inclusive environments.

The event, which will be held May 13-15, 2025, continues its legacy as a premier educational experience focused on bringing evidence-based inclusive practices into real-world settings. And as part of its mission to remove barriers to participation, part of the programming will be available virtually for remote attendees.

Over the three-day conference, nearly 500 in-person and more than 200 on-line participants—including early childhood and early childhood special education practitioners, allied health professionals, researchers, higher education faculty, advocates, self-advocates, and families—will gather for 50 dynamic sessions to learn about the latest research findings, models, and resources that guide inclusive policy and practices. In addition to providing these many learning opportunities, the event will create a vibrant community where attendees can connect and share experiences, further fueling a collective mission to build inclusive environments in each and every participant’s community.

But how, you might be wondering, did it all begin?

Defining inclusion

Toward the end of the 20th century, children with disabilities and their families were gaining positive attention through improved legislation. In 1975 Public Law 94-142, known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), which was later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997, ensured a free, appropriate public education for children with disabilities ages 3–21. And in 1986 Public Law 99-457, which put forth amendments to the EHA, provided incentives for states to offer services to children with disabilities ages birth–2 and reinforced the emphasis on the inclusion of children with disabilities in community-based programs.

As children with disabilities gained access to education available to children without disabilities, IDEA also accorded families rights to participate in decisions made about their children’s education and services.

A Joint Position Statement of the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), approved in 2009, offers a standard definition of inclusion:

Early childhood inclusion embodies the values, policies, and practices that support the right of every infant and young child and his or her family, regardless of ability, to participate in a broad range of activities and contexts as full members of families, communities, and society. The desired results of inclusive experiences for children with and without disabilities and their families include a sense of belonging and membership, positive social relationships and friendships, and development and learning to reach their full potential. The defining features of inclusion that can be used to identify high quality early childhood programs and services are access, participation, and supports.

Over the years, FPG programs and projects have addressed the needs of children with disabilities and their families. In addition, work within FPG has focused on interventions that address ethnic, linguistic, and cultural differences intersecting with disabilities. These programs, which have included research, training, technical assistance, and implementation have varied, as new needs and policies have emerged. But ever constant is FPG’s dedication to creating quality in inclusive and equitable early learning experiences of all children while supporting and collaborating with their families, agencies, and service providers as well as in preparing personnel how best to teach and to serve.

“True inclusion for young children with disabilities is more than securing a placement in a particular setting. It is about focusing on belonging and engagement in learning. To do this, we must be intentional about how we set up the environment, materials, and instruction based on children’s interests, strengths, and needs.”

“True inclusion for young children with disabilities is more than securing a placement in a particular setting,” says Chih-Ing Lim, PhD, a senior technical assistance specialist at FPG and chair of the Inclusion Institute. “It is about focusing on belonging and engagement in learning. To do this, we must be intentional about how we set up the environment, materials, and instruction based on children’s interests, strengths, and needs.”

Furthermore, for inclusion to work, there needs to be a common understanding of evidence-based practices, as well as a set of benchmarks that can be used to guide implementation by governments, early childhood environments, and families. Much of that work and support has been developed and advanced through work at FPG--such as the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center, the Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge (CONNECT), the National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (NPDCI), the STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education (STEMIE), and more—including what is today known as the Inclusion Institute.

Setting the state—and stage—for inclusion

The Inclusion Institute began as part of the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC), which is now known as the ECTA Center. NECTAC served as the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs' national resource for states on implementing the early childhood provisions of IDEA. The Center worked with leadership personnel from all states and other U.S. affiliated jurisdictions to strengthen service systems to ensure that children with disabilities and other special needs and their families received and benefited from high quality, culturally appropriate, and family centered supports and services. As the Inclusion Institute evolved, it became very clear to FPG researchers Pamela Winton, PhD, and Shelley deFosset, PhD, who directed the Inclusion Institute for many years, that the work could not be accomplished without a broader audience.  

A technical assistance specialist, deFosset sought to bring together experts working on inclusion to collectively make a stronger impact on the field and the children served by it.

“At the time, we weren’t appreciating each other’s talents as much as we could, so we invited people to FPG to brainstorm about how we could learn more about inclusion, get to know each other and work as partners,” deFosset said. “Our mission was to provide technical assistance to state education agencies that were required to do inclusion, and they were struggling. Our idea was to support them, and then it grew into something much, much bigger than that.”

“Inclusion meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and when people would say it didn't work, you’d need to ask: Were the teachers prepared? Did they have support? Did the child have the supports they needed? If they didn't, that wasn't really inclusion. That was just putting a child in a place where they struggled, and you didn't help them.”

“Inclusion meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and when people would say it didn't work, you’d need to ask: Were the teachers prepared? Did they have support? Did the child have the supports they needed?” said Winton, who was a senior research scientist at FPG. “If they didn't, that wasn't really inclusion. That was just putting a child in a place where they struggled, and you didn't help them.”

The Inclusion Institute would be an event where those in the field could come to learn that framework, the benchmarks, and evidence-informed practices, like ECTA’s Indicators of High Quality Inclusion, practice-based coaching, family-centered practices, routines-based interventions, and more. The first Inclusion Institute had only one keynote speaker, but over the decades, the Inclusion Institute team built relationships to help the conference grow, including more professionals at all levels of early childhood care, education, and coordination, engaging local and federal policymakers, and inviting greater participation from families of children with disabilities.

In 2009, Winton and deFosset were also part of the National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (NPDCI) that helped create the joint definition of inclusion (mentioned earlier), and through their work, they saw the importance of inclusive environments grow into the many layers of organizations serving young children with disabilities. Their organizing, dedicated outreach, and tireless advocacy helped create buzz, and the word spread. Over the years, the Inclusion Institute grew to 500 attendees, and in 2014, the event sold out for the first time.

“One of the things we felt strongly about was that you can't do this work in isolation; you need to have a team to be able to implement these things. If you could get your director of early childhood special education, your director of early care, and your director of professional development to attend together, they would have the authority and power to make decisions and changes at the program level,” says Winton. And if you included practitioners from multiple sectors and disciplines, families, and cutting-edge researchers involved in identifying interventions and practices, then you were much more likely to bring program improvements. “The team concept,” says Winton, “was a big step forward in inclusion actually taking hold.”

Sustaining the Inclusion Institute

Research from centers and universities across the nation has long demonstrated that high-quality inclusion benefits children with and without disabilities, and that non-inclusive environments can impact learning negatively. In inclusive settings, children with disabilities have better academic skills and higher graduation rates and a greater chance of living independently. And their peers without disabilities also have greater cognitive and language skills, fewer challenging behaviors, and develop more accepting attitudes toward individuals who are different.

FPG Senior Research Scientist and former Director Samuel Odom, PhD, co-authored much of the original research on inclusion, which highlights the social rejection that children with disabilities can face, the positive impact children without disabilities experience when being included with children with disabilities, as well as studies that showed inclusion is not more expensive than having separate programs for children with disabilities.

“Because I was a classroom teacher, and then began doing classroom-based research, initially I thought the main facilitators and barriers [to inclusion] would be related to the classroom, like whether you had an effective intervention that actually worked,” says Odom. “As we began looking at successful and less successful inclusion programs, it became apparent that the issues outside of the classroom have a major impact, so that includes the collaboration among professionals and teachers, the philosophies and beliefs about inclusion, the amount of support that the organization provides―those are the major variables about how well an inclusive experience happens for children with disabilities.”

Odom believes the Inclusion Institute has been key in facilitating change and success for inclusion. “I think the Inclusion Institute has been very instrumental,” says Odom, “in providing a location for researchers and policy makers and practitioners to come together to think about and plan how inclusion can move forward.”

“While we know a single event like the Inclusion Institute will not immediately lead to big changes, this is where the gears start to turn in synchrony. While evidence-based practices on inclusion can be stated and communicated, the Inclusion Institute is a place where attendees can learn, practice, and then make actionable steps to implement what they have learned, and that makes a real difference." 

Lim agrees and says that providing this annual conference for everyone to come together is what helps inspire and drive FPG’s commitment to hosting the event each year. “While we know a single event like the Inclusion Institute will not immediately lead to big changes," says Lim, "this is where the gears start to turn in synchrony. While evidence-based practices on inclusion can be stated and communicated, the Inclusion Institute is a place where attendees can learn, practice, and then make actionable steps to implement what they have learned, and that makes a real difference." 

And Lim expects that to continue well into the future.

Expanding, growing, and looking ahead

In recent years, the event’s directors and team have had an eye toward expanding and growing the event. In 2023 the Inclusion Institute partnered with FPG’s Supporting Change and Reform in Pre-Service Teaching in North Carolina (SCRIPT-NC)—which works with faculty at North Carolina community colleges to better prepare early childhood educators to meet the diverse needs of children—to offer a new higher education track for faculty at two-year and four-year colleges. This kind of extension into more systems is critical.

“Providing professional learning opportunities for community college educators is key to making an impact on personnel who will teach young children,” says Lim. “Those schools are often the first point of contact, whether students are studying to earn their associate degree, or they are practitioners taking classes for a credential.”

Also in 2023, the Inclusion Institute further expanded its reach by continuing to build its international audience. Former FPG Postdoctoral Scholar and author of the Inclusive Classroom Profile (ICP), Elena Soukakou, PhD, helped organize the international component from her home country of Greece. Soukakou, whose classroom observation measure assesses the quality of inclusion, and is used in the US and around the world, has met colleagues from throughout the world, all of whom work in their own context, distinct in terms of unique cultural differences and characteristics. “We share many of the same issues and dilemmas in relation to implementing quality inclusion,” she says. “The Inclusion Institute provides a great opportunity for international scholars to exchange ideas and learn about each other's educational systems and ways that we are implementing inclusion, giving everyone new ways to engage families and children.”

As Lim and her colleagues look toward the future of the Inclusion Institute, they are optimistic envisioning another 25 years of expanding the reach of high quality inclusion, building on past successes and continuing to open new avenues of outreach.

“The Inclusion Institute has been and will continue to be here to support practitioners across different levels of the system by sharing not just the “why” of inclusion―policies, research, and voices of families and individuals with disabilities―but also the “how” offering strategies for putting it into practice. We must all see that a child with disabilities is everyone’s child. It’s about belonging no matter where they are―at home, in the classroom, and the community.”

“The Inclusion Institute has been and will continue to be here to support practitioners across different levels of the system by sharing not just the “why” of inclusion―policies, research, and voices of families and individuals with disabilities―but also the “how” offering strategies for putting it into practice,” says, Lim. “We must all see that a child with disabilities is everyone’s child. It’s about belonging no matter where they are―at home, in the classroom, and the community.”

In reflecting on past events and looking forward, Lim shared this quote from Judith Heumann, who was known as the ‘Mother of the Disability Rights Movement,’

“Change never happens at the pace we think it should. It happens over years of people joining together, strategizing, sharing, and pulling all the levers they possibly can. Gradually, excruciatingly slowly, things start to happen, and then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, something will tip.”  

“Indeed,” says Lim, “this was how the International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute has led the way, proving that when we work across silos and levels of the system, and build from the ground up with families, young children with and without disabilities can thrive in remarkable ways when everyone belongs and is included.”

Lim and her colleagues are planning several unique activities for the upcoming Inclusion Institute to celebrate its 25th anniversary.  Registration to attend is now open and you can find more information on the Inclusion Institute’s website.