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Special Education:Least Restrictive Environment

Promoting School Success for 

your Child with a Disability

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

8/14/2019 Special Education, Least Restrictive Environment, Public School Law, Dr. W.A. Kritsonis

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Today you will learnmore about:

• What the law says about the leastrestrictive

environment (LRE);

• The PJ Settlement Agreement;• Supplementary aids and services; and

• How to address fears parents have

about including students withdisabilities in general education classrooms.

8/14/2019 Special Education, Least Restrictive Environment, Public School Law, Dr. W.A. Kritsonis

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Individuals with Disabilities

Education Act (IDEA 04)

• 1975- Education of All HandicappedChildren

Act

• Reauthorized every five years

• Provides for a free appropriate publiceducation (FAPE) for students withdisabilities

• Last reauthorized in 2004

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No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

*Signed into law January 2002

*Improve outcomes for All Children

*Close the achievement gap betweenchildren with or without disabilities

*Emphasis on reading and using approachesthat have been proven to be effective

*Ensure that teachers are highly qualified

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Individualized EducationProgram – (IEP )

TheIndividuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA)aligns IDEA closely to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB),helping to ensure equity, accountability and excellence ineducation for children with disabilities.

Note that IDEA 2004 is in effect as of July 1, 2005, with theexception of the Highly Qualified provision, which has been ineffect since the law's signing on December 3, 2004.

On August 14, 2006, the official copy of the final Part B regulations

of the IDEA 2004 was published in the Federal Register.

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Planning before Placement

The next slide will give you the child's placement (where the IEPwill be carried out) and must be decided. The placement decisionis made by a group of people, including the parents and otherswho know about the child, what the evaluation results mean, andwhat types of placements are appropriate. In some states, the IEPteam serves as the group making the placement decision. Inother states, this decision may be made by another group of people. In all cases, the parents have the right to be members of the group that decides the educational placement of the child .

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Parent Student

Roles and

responsibiliti

es

School

Attend

Share visions

& priorities

Ask

questions

Attend &

Participate – when ready

Self-advocateShare

information

Communicate

to resolve

differences

Acknowledge

differencesObserve the

child

Review/monitor 

progress

Commit resources

Follow procedural safeguards

Deliver services

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Placement in the LeastRestrictive Environment-

(LRE)* The placement of students with disabilities ages 3through 21 in appropriate settings has been an integralpart of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act(IDEA) since its enactment. Three basic principles are

included in the federal mandates. These are:• Placement is based on the student 's individualized

education program;

• Placement is in the least restrictive environment; and

• A continuum of alternative placement options is

available to all students with disabilities.

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FACTORS:• First Factor requires that consideration be given to a comparison of the

benefits in the regular class and the benefits in the special class. In DanielR. v. El Paso Independent School District, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that the appropriateness of placement in the regular classroom is not dependent on the student's abilityto learn the same things that other students learn in the regular classroom.

 The benefit from social interaction of the student with nondisabled peers isa legitimate benefit that can be derived from placement in the regularclassroom.

• Second factor requires that consideration be given to the potentiallybeneficial or harmful effects that placement in the regular classroom mayhave on the student with educational disabilities and the other children inthe class. Two examples of the many beneficial social and academic effectsthat may accrue to a student with disabilities include positive peer modelsand high expectations for achievement. The potentially beneficial effects onthe other children in the class are fostered as they learn to understand andaccept the individual differences of their peers. Harmful effects may include

the disruptive behavior of a student with disabilities if the disruptiveness issevere enough to significantly impair the education of other students. Theschool district must demonstrate that full consideration has been given tothe complete range of supplementary aids and services that could beprovided to the student to deal with the problem behaviors.

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Placement options include: 

• a regular classroom;

• a regular classroom with modifications and/or supplemental aids and services;

• a resource room for special education instructionwith instruction in a regular classroom;

• a classroom for children with disabilities locatedin a regular school;

• day or residential special schools, where manyor all students may have disabilities; and

• a home, hospital, or institution based program 

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The PJ SettlementAgreement

  P.J., et al v. State of Connecticut, Board of Education, et al. was filed in 1991 on behalf of fiveschool-age children with mental retardation and their families. The case was certified as a class action lawsuiton December 13, 1993. The court defined the class as

“all mentally retarded school-aged children inConnecticut who have been identified as needing specialeducation and who. . . are not educated in regular classrooms” The Settlement Agreement specificallyincludes children with the label “Intellectual Disability.”

On May 22, 2002, a Settlement Agreement wasapproved and 5 goals and outcomes were determined.

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The Five Goals of the PJ

Settlement Agreement• An increase in the percent of students with mental

retardation/intellectual disability who are placed inregular classes.

• A reduction in the disparate identification of students with

MR/ID by racial, ethnic or gender group.• An increase in the percent of the school day that

students with MR/ID spend with non-disabled students.

• An increase in the percent of students who attend their 

“home school.”• An increase in the percent of students with MR/ID whoparticipate in school-sponsored extracurricular activitieswith non-disabled peers.

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How Do You Address the Fears of Parents with

Disabilities in a Regular Classroom:

• http://www.klschools.org/www/klsd/site/hosting/public_h

The above link will give you a “Special Education Parent

Handbook”, which is a (47 page) very interesting

publication for a reference guide.

* http://www.coping.org/specialneeds/normaliz.htm

Tools for Parents of Children with Disabilities and Special Needs 

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References

• http://www.coping.org/specialneeds/normaliz.htm

• http://www.klschools.org/www/klsd/site/hosting/public_html/SPED/SPEDParentHandbook.pdf 

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA)

• No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

• http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/lre.index.htm

• http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/idea.lre.fape.htm

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APPENDEX

Some text books that might be of some help or references to both theparent and schools are as follows:

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Case StudiesCase law:

• Board of Ed. of Hendrick Hudson Central School Dist. v. Rowley 458 U.S. 176 (1982).First decision in a special education case by the U. S. Supreme Court; defined "freeappropriate public education" in the least restrictive environment.

Carter v. Florence County, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Whilearguing that four months a year of progress in reading was appropriate, the districtalso argued that because Trident Academy was not on the State's "approved" list,Shannon's parents should not be reimbursed for the placement. The Court discusses

the mainstreaming policy and "least restrictive environment". This ruling created a"split" among circuits that opened the door to an appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court inFlorence County School District Four v. Shannon Carter . 

• Hartmann v. Loudoun County, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, inclusionand LRE for child with autism (1997).L.B. and J.B. ex rel. K.B. v. Nebo UT School District, U. S. Court of Appeals for theTenth Circuit. Parents of child with autism reimbursed for ABA therapy and private

preschool which was LRE; also impartiality of hearing officer. (August 2004)

T. R. v. Kingwood Township (NJ) (3rd Cir. 2000) Clarifies requirement to provide a"free appropriate education (FAPE)" in the "least restrictive environment, meaningfulbenefit, continuum of placements.

Zachary Deal v. Hamilton Dept of Educ (TN Due Process Decision Aug 2001)Administrative law judge issues 45 page decision after a 27-day due process hearing;

finds procedural safeguards and LRE violations; substantive violations; discusses credibilityproblems with school witnesses re: closed minds, evasiveness.

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Conclusion

This was a very interesting topic to do my PowerPoint Presentationon and I found a lot of information on the subject matter. I could goon and on because there is so much to learn and tell. I had theopportunity to teach as a Special Education Associate in DesMoines, Iowa many years ago and I learned a lot from thatexperience. Now that I teach in the Aldine ISD district, I am getting

hands on experience as a teacher on some of the issues and lawsthat are associated with Special Education Least RestrictiveEnvironment. I have several students on my class roster that I dealwith it every day. And I am learning new things everyday as well.To me, “the least restrictive environment is the one that, to thegreatest extent possible, satisfactorily educates disabled childrentogether with children who are not disabled, in the same school thedisabled child would attend if the child were not disabled."