Oftentimes, schools that are specifically for students with disabilities are not located in the students' home neighborhoods. Because of this, a child with a disability will not get to know the children that live around him as well as he would if he attended their school, and might not be as connected to his community.
A school that serves students with disabilities may not have any regularly developing students without disabilities. Because of this, the role models that your child will encounter will have similar characteristics as she does, decreasing her potential for improving her skills by modeling. For example, a child who is in a mainstream class will be able to see the majority of her class sitting and listening. This may not be the case at a school that only serves students with disabilities.
School is not only a place for children to learn academics. They also spend time learning how to interact socially in the world around them, which is just as important as knowing how to read and write. When children with disabilities attend a special school for children with disabilities, the opportunities for healthy, positive social interactions with peers decrease because the people around them also have problems with social interactions.