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Putting children with special needs in mainstream schools can lead to unhappiness, writes Robin Jackson.

Jenny Morris' argument that residential special schooling is educationally, socially and ethically undesirable (Community Care, April 11) ignores the fact that there are families with children with special needs which are forced into self-imposed isolation. This is through fear that their children will be bullied and tormented by other children or that they will be verbally abused by neighbours.

Parents recognise this kind of isolation for what it is - enforced imprisonment both for their child and themselves. By using the term "imprisonment" parents are selecting a word which precisely mirrors reality, for prejudice, rejection and hostility can combine to create a barrier as real and enduring as a prison wall.

A family has to be extraordinarily resilient and resourceful to withstand the pressures generated by this kind of exclusion. While there are some families who find that the presence of a child with special needs can act as a positive and integrative force, there are others who do not. The result of this is that all too frequently one finds marital disharmony and conflict, psychological breakdown of a parent (usually the mother) and acute difficulties in the management of other children.

Such families are asked to cope with degrees of stress about which most people can have little knowledge, experience or understanding. The insistence by some local authorities that parents of children with special needs should keep their children at home whatever the human cost smacks of blind subservience to principle. What kind of "normality" is it where children have to be confined within the four walls of their home, rarely integrating into their community for any kind of social or recreational activity, and living in a highly emotionally charged and psychologically corrosive family atmosphere?

The value of the residential special school does not rest simply on the advantages it confers on the child. It serves two purposes of equal importance and value: it seeks to meet the individual needs of the child and the collective needs of the family. It provides time for parents and siblings to re-establish links with the world outside the home and to return to a more "normal" family regime. What needs to be recognised is that the unquestioning pursuit of the principle of inclusion leads to significant casualties, not just children but whole families.

Robin Jackson is development and training co-ordinator for Camphill Scotland, which provide services for children, adults and older people with special care needs.