The study addresses the social participation of integrated students with special educational needs (SEN) in upper primary regular classes in Greece alongside their perceptions of best friend quality. In keeping with previous research, social participation was defined as consisting of four key dimensions, namely the students' acceptance by classmates; their friendships; their social self-perceptions; and their social interactions. Participants were 457 students with a mean age of 11.04 (sd=.83), of which 45 were diagnosed as having moderate learning difficulties and 412 were typically developing students. Fieldwork involved implementing a sociometric technique, conducting systematic observations and administering two psychometric instruments: the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Friendship Qualities Scale (FQS). In line with previous studies, students with SEN received fewer nominations of peer acceptance, had fewer friends and had fewer social interactions with classmates than their typically developing peers. The social self-perception and the perceptions of friendship quality of both groups of students did not differ. Contrary to expectations, the students with SEN's social self-concept was not related to their acceptance by peers but it was positively related to the 'companionship' dimension of friendship quality. These results highlight the need to direct the researchers' attention from measuring the social participation of students with SEN within their class network towards examining the quality and durability of their friendships.

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In this interview study, three middle school students with disabilities and seven without disabilities were interviewed about their experiences in a co‐taught classroom. Also, data from their co‐teachers who taught mathematics, social studies and science were gathered. Both students and teachers reported that co‐teaching provides extra help for all students and that co‐teachers’ positive interactions in the class benefit students’ learning and social participation. Although some results matched other researchers’ findings that special educators are less frequently the lead teacher, our results indicated that supportive co‐teaching can be effective under certain conditions. We call for a deeper examination of the supportive co‐teaching model because it can be effective when there is active support provided for all students. As reported by these co‐teachers and their students, aspects of parity were evidenced in the relationships between and among the co‐teachers and students, even when the general educator led most of the instruction.