A group of researchers from Syracuse University's School of Education (New York) conducted 25 case studies of local school programs that had been nominated by teachers, administrators, and parents as being exemplary in integrating children with disabilities into the mainstream of education. The 12 case studies selected for this volume represent the diversity and range of grade levels of the programs studied. The following case studies are included: "'Walk across That Stage': A Case Study of a Program for Neurologically Impaired and Learning Disabled Students at Hutton High" (R. Bogdan); "When There's No Debate: A Program for Elementary School Students Which Has a Mission" (D. Biklen); "'I've Always Been the Kind of Teacher Who Did Things I Believed in Whether Other People Did Them or Not': An Integrated Kindergarten" (E. Barnes); "The Deaf Education Program in Sherwood Elementary School" (C. Berrigan); "If Mainstreaming Is the Answer, What Is the Question: The Puzzle of Integrating a High School Class of Autistic Students" (P. Ferguson); "Integration in a Segregated School: A Study in Contradictions" (J. Kugelmass); "The Other 10%: Integration in a Preschool Program" (S. Mlinarcik); "'They Think They Can Fly!': MacMillian Elementary School--Sixth Grade Class" (M. Sokoloff); "'I've Been Doing This Wrong All These Years': Mainstreaming 11 to 13 Year Olds in a Suburban Elementary School" (M. Cantey); "Lucky to Survive: Resource Program in an Upper Middle Class Suburb" (S. Fitzgerald); "A Feather in the Cap: A Self Contained Classroom for Severely Mentally Handicapped 16-21 Year Old Students in an Urban Middle School" (S. Lesure); "The Class and Faye: Social Interaction of a Handicapped Child in an Integrated First Grade Class" (S. Bruni). A conclusion proposes the need for interactionist theory in special education. (CL)