William Allan Kritsonis, PhD-special Education-least Restrictive Environmen

8/20/2019 William Allan Kritsonis, PhD-special Education-least Restrictive Environmen

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/william-allan-kritsonis-phd-special-education-least-restrictive-environmen 1/17

Special Education:

Least Restrictive EnvironmentPromoting School Success for your Child with a Disability

Public School LawLecture Notes

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD



Today you will learnmore about:

• What the law says about the leastrestrictive

environment (LRE);

• The PJ Settlement !reement;

• Su""lementary aids and services; and

• #ow to address $ears "arents have

about includin! students withdisabilities in !eneral education classrooms%



ndividuals with Disabilities

Education !ct "DE! #$%

• 1975- Education of All HandicappedChildren

Act

• Reauthorized every ve years

• rovides for a free appropriate pu!lic education "#AE$ for students %ith

disa!ilities

• &ast reauthorized in '(()



*o Child &eft +ehind "*C&+$

,i.ned into la% /anuary '(('

,0prove outcoes for All Children

,Close the achieveent .ap !et%eenchildren %ith or %ithout disa!ilities

,Ephasis on readin. and usin.approaches that have !een proven to !ee2ective

,Ensure that teachers are hi.hly 3ualied

http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml?src=pb



&ndividuali'ed EducationPro!ram (&EP )

&hendividuals with Disabilities Education mprovement !ct of '##$ "DE!% aligns DE! closely to the

No Child Left (ehind !ct "NCL(%) helping to ensure e*uity)accountability and e+cellence in education for children withdisabilities,

Note that DE! '##$ is in effect as of -uly .) '##/) with thee+ception of the 0ighly 1ualified provision) which has beenin effect since the law2s signing on December 3) '##$,

4n !ugust .$) '##5) the official copy of the final Part (regulations of the DE! '##$ was published in the 6ederalRegister,

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:h.1350.enr:


http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml?src=fb






Plannin! be$ore Placement

4he net slide %ill .ive you the child6splaceent "%here the 0E %ill !e carried out$ andust !e decided 4he placeent decision is

ade !y a .roup of people8 includin. the parents

and others %ho no% a!out the child8 %hat theevaluation results ean8 and %hat types ofplaceents are appropriate 0n soe states8 the0E tea serves as the .roup ain. theplaceent decision 0n other states8 this decision

ay !e ade !y another .roup of people In allcases, the parents have the right to be membersof the group that decides the educational

placement of the child



Parent Student

Roles and

responsibilitie

s

School

Attend

Share visions

& priorities

Ask

questions

Attend &

Participate –when ready

Self-advocateShare

information

ommunicate

to resolve

differences

Acknowled!e

differences"bserve the

child

Review#monitor

pro!ress

ommit resources

$ollow procedural safe!uards

%eliver services



Placement in the LeastRestrictive Environment

(LRE), 4he placeent of students %ith disa!ilities a.es :

throu.h '1 in appropriate settin.s has !een aninte.ral part of the 0ndividuals %ith ;isa!ilitiesEducation Act "0;EA$ since its enactent 4hreebasic "rinci"les are included in the federalandates 4hese are<

• laceent is !ased on the student 6sindividualized education pro.ra=

• laceent is in the least restrictive environent=and

• A continuu of alternative placeent options isavaila!le to all students %ith disa!ilities



*+T,RS:

• *irst *actor re3uires that consideration !e .iven to a coparisonof the !enets in the re.ular class and the !enets in the specialclass 0n -aniel R% v% El Paso &nde"endent School -istrict. the>nited tates Court of Appeals for the #ifth Circuit deterined thatthe appropriateness of placeent in the re.ular classroo is notdependent on the student6s a!ility to learn the sae thin.s thatother students learn in the re.ular classroo 4he !enet fro socialinteraction of the student %ith nondisa!led peers is a le.itiate

!enet that can !e derived fro placeent in the re.ular classroo• Second $actor re3uires that consideration !e .iven to the

potentially !enecial or harful e2ects that placeent in the re.ularclassroo ay have on the student %ith educational disa!ilities andthe other children in the class 4%o eaples of the any !enecialsocial and acadeic e2ects that ay accrue to a student %ithdisa!ilities include positive peer odels and hi.h epectations for

achieveent 4he potentially !enecial e2ects on the other childrenin the class are fostered as they learn to understand and accept theindividual di2erences of their peers Harful e2ects ay include thedisruptive !ehavior of a student %ith disa!ilities if the disruptivenessis severe enou.h to si.nicantly ipair the education of otherstudents 4he school district ust deonstrate that fullconsideration has !een .iven to the coplete ran.e ofsuppleentary aids and services that could !e provided to the

student to deal %ith the pro!le !ehaviors



Placement o"tions include:

7 a regular classroom8

7 a regular classroom with modifications and9orsupplemental aids and services8

7 a resource room for special education instructionwith instruction in a regular classroom8

7 a classroom for children with disabilities locatedin a regular school8

7 day or residential special schools) where manyor all students may have disabilities8 and

7 a home) hospital) or institution based program



The PJ Settlement!reement

P.J., et al v. State of Connecticut, Board ofEducation, et al, was filed in .. on behalf of fiveschool;age children with mental retardation and theirfamilies, &he case was certified as a class action lawsuiton December .3) .3, &he 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 regularclassrooms= &he Settlement !greement specificallyincludes children with the label <ntellectual Disability,=

4n >ay '') '##') a Settlement !greement wasapproved and / goals and outcomes were determined,



The Five oals of the PJ

Settlement A!reement7 !n increase in the percent of students with mental

retardation9intellectual disability who are placed inregular classes,

7 ! reduction in the disparate identification of students with

>R9D by racial) ethnic or gender group,7 !n increase in the percent of the school day that

students with >R9D spend with non;disabled students,

7 !n increase in the percent of students who attend their

<home school,=7 !n increase in the percent of students with >R9D who

participate in school;sponsored e+tracurricular activitieswith non;disabled peers,



"o# Do $ou Address the Fears of Parents #ith

Disa%ilities in a &e!ular Classroom'

7 htt('))###.*lschools.or!)###)*lsd)site)hostin!)(

u%lic+html)SPED)SPEDParent"and%oo*.(df

&he above lin? will give you a <Special Education Parent

0andboo?=) which is a "$@ page% very interestingpublication for a reference guide,

A htt('))###.co(in!.or!)s(ecialneeds)normali.htm

Tools for Parents of Children #ith Disa%ilities and S(ecial -eeds

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


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






References

7 http:99www,coping,org9specialneeds9normaliB,htm

7 htt('))###.*lschools.or!)###)*lsd)site)hostin!)(u%lic+html )SPED)SPEDParent"and%oo*.(df

7 ndividuals with Disabilities Education mprovement !ct of '##$ "DE!%

7 No Child Left (ehind !ct "NCL(%

7 htt('))###.#ri!htsla#.com)info)lre.inde.htm

7 htt('))###.#ri!htsla#.com)advoc)articles)idea.lre.fa(e.htm







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

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

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

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









!PPENDE

oe tet !oos that i.ht !e ofsoe help or references to !oth theparent and schools are as follo%s<

http://www.wrightslaw.com/store/feta.html

http://www.wrightslaw.com/store/nclb.html

http://www.wrightslaw.com/store/selaw2.html



Case Studies

Case la#'7 (oard of Ed, of 0endric? 0udson Central School Dist, v, Rowley $/ ,S, .@5 ".'%,6irst decision in a special education case by the , S, Supreme Court8 defined Ffreeappropriate public educationF in the least restrictive environment,

Carter v, 6lorence County) , S, Court of !ppeals for the 6ourth Circuit Ghile arguingthat four months a year of progress in reading was appropriate) the district alsoargued that because &rident !cademy was not on the State2s FapprovedF list)

Shannon2s parents should not be reimbursed for the placement, &he Court discussesthe mainstreaming policy and Fleast restrictive environmentF, &his ruling created aFsplitF among circuits that opened the door to an appeal to the , S, Supreme Court inFlorence County School District Four v. Shannon Carter ,

7 0artmann v, Loudoun County) ,S, Court of !ppeals for the 6ourth Circuit) inclusionand LRE for child with autism ".@%,

L,(, and -,(, e+ rel, H,(, v, Nebo & School District) , S, Court of !ppeals for the&enth Circuit, Parents of child with autism reimbursed for !(! therapy and privatepreschool which was LRE8 also impartiality of hearing officer, "!ugust '##$%

&, R, v, Hingwood &ownship "N-% "3rd Cir, '###% Clarifies re*uirement to provide aFfree appropriate education "6!PE%F in the Fleast restrictive environment) meaningfulbenefit) continuum of placements,

Iachary Deal v, 0amilton Dept of Educ "&N Due Process Decision !ug '##.% !dministrative law Judge issues $/ page decision after a '@;day due process hearing8finds procedural safeguards and LRE violations8 substantive violations8 discusses credibility



Conclusion

&his was a very interesting topic to do my PowerPoint Presentationon and found a lot of information on the subJect matter, could goon and on because there is so much to learn and tell, had theopportunity to teach as a Special Education !ssociate in Des>oines) owa many years ago and learned a lot from thate+perience, Now that teach in the !ldine SD district) am gettinghands on e+perience as a teacher on some of the issues and lawsthat are associated with Special Education Least RestrictiveEnvironment, have several students on my class roster that dealwith it every day, !nd am learning new things everyday as well, &ome) <the least restrictive environment is the one that) to the greateste+tent possible) satisfactorily educates disabled children together

with children who are not disabled) in the same school the disabledchild would attend if the child were not disabled,F

Documents

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD-special Education-least Restrictive Environmen