William Kritsonis, School Law, Ch 3 Least Restrictive

1
Special Education Least Restrictive
Environment

• Promoting School Success for your Child with a
  Disability
• William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

2
Today you will learn more about

• What the law says about the least restrictive
• environment (LRE)
• The PJ Settlement Agreement
• Supplementary aids and services and
• How to address fears parents have about including
  students with disabilities in general education
  classrooms.

3
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA
04)

• 1975- Education of All Handicapped Children
• Act
• Reauthorized every five years
• Provides for a free appropriate public
• education (FAPE) for students with
  disabilities
• Last reauthorized in 2004

4
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

• Signed into law January 2002
• Improve outcomes for All Children
• Close the achievement gap between children with
  or without disabilities
• Emphasis on reading and using approaches that
  have been proven to be effective
• Ensure that teachers are highly qualified

5
Individualized Education Program (IEP )

• The Individuals 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 in education for children with
  disabilities.Note that IDEA 2004 is in effect
  as of July 1, 2005, with the exception of the
  Highly Qualified provision, which has been in
  effect 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 IEP will be carried out) and
  must be decided. The placement decision is made
  by a group of people, including the parents and
  others who know about the child, what the
  evaluation results mean, and what types of
  placements are appropriate. In some states, the
  IEP team serves as the group making the placement
  decision. In other 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.

7
Student
Parent
Attend Participate when ready Self-advocate
Attend Share visions priorities Ask questions
Share information Communicate to resolve
differences Acknowledge differences
Observe the child Review/monitor progress
Commit resources Follow procedural
safeguards Deliver services
Roles and responsibilities at the PPT
School
8
Placement in the Least Restrictive Environment-
(LRE)

• The placement of students with disabilities
  ages 3 through 21 in appropriate settings has
  been an integral part 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 Daniel R. 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
  ability to learn the same things that other
  students learn in the regular classroom. The
  benefit from social interaction of the student
  with nondisabled peers is a legitimate benefit
  that can be derived from placement in the regular
  classroom.
• Second factor requires that consideration be
  given to the potentially beneficial or harmful
  effects that placement in the regular classroom
  may have on the student with educational
  disabilities and the other children in the class.
  Two examples of the many beneficial social and
  academic effects that may accrue to a student
  with disabilities include positive peer models
  and high expectations for achievement. The
  potentially beneficial effects on the other
  children in the class are fostered as they learn
  to understand and accept the individual
  differences of their peers. Harmful effects may
  include the disruptive behavior of a student with
  disabilities if the disruptiveness is severe
  enough to significantly impair the education of
  other students. The school district must
  demonstrate that full consideration has been
  given to the complete range of supplementary aids
  and services that could be provided 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 instruction
  with instruction in a regular classroom
• a classroom for children with disabilities
  located in a regular school
• day or residential special schools, where many or
  all students may have disabilities and
• a home, hospital, or institution based program

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The PJ Settlement Agreement

• P.J., et al v. State of Connecticut, Board of
  Education, et al. was filed in 1991 on behalf of
  five school-age children with mental retardation
  and their families. The case was certified as a
  class action lawsuit on December 13, 1993. The
  court defined the class as all mentally retarded
  school-aged children in Connecticut who have been
  identified as needing special education and who.
  . . are not educated in regular classrooms The
  Settlement Agreement specifically includes
  children with the label Intellectual
  Disability. On May 22, 2002, a Settlement
  Agreement was approved 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 in regular 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
  who participate in school-sponsored
  extracurricular activities with 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/pub
  lic_html/SPED/SPEDParentHandbook.pdf
• 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.ht
  m
• 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/pub
  lic_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 the parent and schools are as
  follows

16
Case Studies

• Case 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 "free appropriate public
  education" in the least restrictive
  environment.Carter v. Florence County, U. S.
  Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit  While
  arguing that four months a year of progress in
  reading was appropriate, the district also 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 in Florence
  County School District Four v. Shannon Carter. 
• Hartmann v. Loudoun County, U.S. Court of Appeals
  for the Fourth Circuit, inclusion and 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 the Tenth 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, meaningful benefit,
  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 credibility
  problems with school witnesses re closed minds,
  evasiveness.

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Conclusion

• This was a very interesting topic to do my
  PowerPoint Presentation on and I found a lot of
  information on the subject matter. I could go on
  and on because there is so much to learn and
  tell. I had the opportunity to teach as a
  Special Education Associate in Des Moines, Iowa
  many years ago and I learned a lot from that
  experience. Now that I teach in the Aldine ISD
  district, I am getting hands on experience as a
  teacher on some of the issues and laws that are
  associated with Special Education Least
  Restrictive Environment. I have several students
  on my class roster that I deal with it every day.
  And I am learning new things everyday as well.
  To me, the least restrictive environment is the
  one that, to the greatest extent possible,
  satisfactorily educates disabled children
  together with children who are not disabled, in
  the same school the disabled child would attend
  if the child were not disabled."