Three decades ago, Congress mandated that American children with disabilities be educated in the “least restrictive environment.” In 2000, the National Council on Disability determined that none of the 50 states had yet complied with the law. Today, families and schools are still struggling to achieve the vision of educating all children together while attending to each child’s unique learning style and needs.

In Song of Our Children, viewers meet teachers, administrators, parents, and students whose daily struggles and triumphs exemplify what “educational inclusion” means and what it takes to make it work. The film journeys from a past when children with disabilities were institutionalized or, at best, taught in “special” classrooms, to a present full of innovation and experimentation. Teachers have discovered new ways of teaching, parents have learned new ways of thinking, and children have discovered that they all have something to teach one another. Yet we are still struggling to overcome the institutional, financial, and cultural barriers to full inclusion. This moving portrayal of four memorable children — from preschool age to high school — reveals the challenges, strategies, and benefits of inclusion for everybody.