Inclusion in schools has become a central educational policy goal in recent years (Bossaert et al., 2015). The focus is not only on spatial inclusion, but also on social inclusion (Schwab, 2016). Inclusive teaching is intended to enable students with special educational needs (SEN) to participate in social life and thus build up a social network. According to the results of international studies, students with SEN are at risk of social exclusion (e. g. Koster et al. 2007). Furthermore, empirical findings show on the one hand that it is more difficult for students with SEN to find friends (Koster et al. 2010) and on the other hand that mutual friendships lead to better academic achievements and a lower level of loneliness (Bossaert et al. 2015). Therefore, the question arises if students with SEN choose more often students with SEN than students without SEN as friends and to what extent the quality of friendship differs when one or both students have SEN. As part of the ATIS-STEP project (Attitudes Towards Inclusive Schooling - Students, Teachers and Parents), 721 fourth grade students from 48 inclusive classes in Styria (Austria) took part in the quantitative questionnaire survey at the beginning of the school year 2016/17. For this study, only the classes in which at least two students with SEN are taught were considered (N= 28 classes). 57 boys and 35 girls had a diagnosed SEN. The sociometric nomination method was used to record friendships. The students could nominate a maximum of five friends and answer four items for each friend about the quality of friendship (based on a German translation of individual items of the Friendship Quality Scale by Bukowski et al. 1994). Initial analyses show that both female students with SEN (t[36.36]=2.24, p