Inclusion Of Handicapped Students In Public Education and Politics In 1975, the Handicapped Act and subsequent law would forever change the public education system. Handicapped children would be included in mainstream public school life beginning in the elementary level. Inclusion meant that handicapped children would no longer be isolated. The question has long been asked why it took an additional eleven years after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for handicapped children to reach the goal of integration. Finn (1996) and Pelka (1996)