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KATHY GRAVES: Good morning.

SPEAKER: Hi.

TIM PUGMIRE: Fourth grader, Sam Graves, lives just a few blocks from Lake Harriet Community School in Southwest Minneapolis. It would be a short walk for most kids in the neighborhood. But Sam has cerebral palsy and needs a ride.

A small school bus pulls up to the curb outside Sam's house every morning and afternoon. The driver uses a lift to get Sam and his electric wheelchair in and out of the bus. Transportation is a critical need and often a big worry for the parents of disabled students. Kathy Graves says, her son is fortunate to have a great bus driver.

KATHY GRAVES: You know, when you've got kids with special needs riding buses, and especially if they're not verbal and if they can't talk and you have a bus driver who's not particularly sensitive or-- but he is unbelievable. I mean, he's just right there with the kids.

TIM PUGMIRE: Sam contracted viral meningitis when he was a week old, resulting in some brain damage. Sam's motor skills, muscles, and speech are impaired. But his cognitive abilities are sound. He generally gets As and Bs and spends two hours a week in a rigorous gifted and talented program. Sam says, his favorite subjects are reading and math.

Like many kids his age, he gets more talkative when the discussion turns to sports or his favorite computer game.

SAM GRAVES: Need for Speed-- a car racing game.

KATHY GRAVES: Need for Speed.

SAM GRAVES: And Madden '99-- is real football game, like real football.

TIM PUGMIRE: The first person Sam sees every day at Lake Harriet Community School is his educational assistant. April Glander meets Sam at the bus, helps him on the elevator, opens his locker, and remains close by his desk throughout the school day. She also helps two other students in the same class. Glander says, her job is to assist Sam with mechanical and logistical challenges.

APRIL GLANDER: Helping them get into spots where you can't get into, or taking out his pencil if he can't get it out of his box. He's very smart, so the academic part, he can all do himself. But sometimes, he'll tell me what to write if there's a lot of writing involved so that I can write it for him.

TIM PUGMIRE: Sam's case is not unique. Since the enactment in 1975 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act-- or IDEA-- most disabled students are in classrooms with nondisabled students. A survey earlier this year by the nonprofit research organization, Public Agenda, found 73% of the parents of special education students reported their child spends most of the school day in a regular classroom. Lake Harriet fourth grade teacher, Calvin Boone, says, he views Sam as fully integrated into his classroom.

CALVIN BOONE: I tried to incorporate him in everything that we do. And I try to treat him just like I would treat any other student. So there's no real major challenges that I can see, other than he does have some handicaps. But it doesn't seem like it gets in the way of him doing what he has to do in the classroom.

TIM PUGMIRE: Sam spends most of his time in Boone's classroom getting help from his educational assistant. But he also requires help from other specialists. Sam has regular sessions with the school's physical therapist and speech pathologist.

When Mr. Boone's class goes to the gym, Sam gets individual attention from a developmental adapted physical education teacher. Pat Mosbacher travels among five Minneapolis schools with a caseload of 45 students. She says, including Sam in today's soccer instruction took some improvisation.

PAT MOSBACHER: Sam needs assistance to use his feet. So what I've done is, I've bought a wire shelf from Home Depot, put it in front of his feet, and now he can keep the ball rolling or turn right or left with it.

TIM PUGMIRE: Parents play a key role in their disabled child's education. They meet annually with teachers, administrators, and specialists to formulate the child's Individualized Education Program or IEP. Kathy Graves says, everything her son needs is spelled out in his IEP.

KATHY GRAVES: We really look at it as a way of looking at his day and breaking it down into pieces and what it's going to take in literally every setting-- if he's in the classroom working on a worksheet, or if he has to do an art project, or what it will take, what kind of accommodations.

TIM PUGMIRE: Graves says, she's been pleased with the responsiveness of the Minneapolis school district in meeting the needs of her son. But parents and school officials don't always agree on the IEP or its implementation. Statewide, more than 100 complaints are filed each year. Five years ago, state education officials found widespread problems with Minneapolis schools not keeping up with student IEP requirements.

Tom Lombard of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning has been closely monitoring the district. He says, most Minneapolis schools have made big improvements. But 28 schools are still having compliance trouble.

TOM LOMBARD: If parents see that their kids are not improving as they should, there are procedures in place for them to re-examine this plan. But if the plans are way behind or they're not getting done, then parents are left kind of out in left field as how to measure their kid's progress.

TIM PUGMIRE: Lombard says, the problems in Minneapolis were related to the district giving more decision-making authority to individual schools. The oversight of special education is now back in the hands of the district's central office. The district developed new support systems and put limits on the caseloads for teachers. Colleen Baumtrog is special education director for Minneapolis schools.

COLLEEN BAUMTROG: What we're finding with the complaints is that we maybe have about 12 a year-- it's been a pretty constant number over the last three years-- but that the district is found to have violations less and less.

TIM PUGMIRE: The public agenda survey found nationwide that one in six parents of disabled students have considered legal action over their child's education program. But 67% thought their school is doing a good or excellent job. Kathy Graves reflects that majority view. She also knows her son's life would have been significantly different in the time before the special education mandates.

KATHY GRAVES: Kids in my generation were not mainstreamed particularly. And a kid like Sam, just because he used a wheelchair, would have been put into a classroom with all kids with disabilities. It would have made absolutely no sense. It would have been a waste of his time. And a lot of kids were kind of warehoused that way.

TIM PUGMIRE: Graves says, the federal requirements of the IDEA are more than legal protections but the basis for her son to have a successful and independent future. And according to Sam, that future might include a career as a pilot or a baseball player. I'm Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio.