Several international studies suggest that the initial goal of social integration of children with special educational needs in inclusive classrooms is less satisfactory put into practice than intended (Pijl & Frostad, 2010). Based on the social-referencing theory (Feinman, 1992) and other working groups (e.g. McAuliffe, Hubbard, & Romano, 2009) we assume, that the teacher is also an important social reference for young students when they are seeking for new friends in everyday school life. In this study we examine whether teacher feedback is linked to social peer acceptance indicated by students themselves. The main research interest of this study focused on the question if teachers´ feedback in everyday school life is really linked to social peer acceptance. Teachers´ feedback towards each student has been observed in six primary school classes (grade 3 and 4). The sample consists of six teachers and 150 students (79 female). Two raters observed the feedback given by the teachers using an observation grid. Observers counted positive and negative teacher feedback for each student over a period of six lessons. Only observation units with an interrater reliability of at least r >.7 are included in further analyses. Further, the social acceptance of each student has been measured by the sociometric method (Moreno, 1974) and by a subscale of the FEESS questionnaire (Rauer & Schuck, 2003). It is hypothesized that high social acceptance scores are significantly linked to more positive and less negative teacher feedback. Vice versa it is expected, that low scores of social acceptance go along with more negative and less positive teacher feedback. Data analyses of this study starts in February 2017 and will be presented at this symposium. In a pilot study with 106 students the interrater reliability was r=.74. Results suggested that the boys’ social position in the class is more influenced by positive teacher feedback (r=-.413; p<.01), while the girls’ social status is more influenced by negative teacher feedback (r=.553 ; p<.01). In the presentation the theoretical fundament and the results of the main study will be presented and their meaning for the inclusion debate will be discussed. The relevance of teacher feedback for the facilitation of social integration of children with special educational needs will be discussed.

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