In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a special education law that mandates regulation for students with disabilities to protect their rights as students and the rights of their parents. The IDEA requires that all students receive a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), and that these students should be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). To determine what an appropriate setting is for a student, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team will review the student's strengths, weaknesses, and needs, and consider the educational benefits from placement in any particular educational setting. By law the team is required to include the student's parent or guardian, a general education teacher, a special education teacher, a representative of the local education agency, someone to interpret evaluation results and, if appropriate, the student. It is the IEP team's responsibility to determine what environment is the LRE for any given student with disabilities, which varies between every student.[1] The goal of an IEP is to create the LRE for that student to learn in. For some students, mainstream inclusion in a standard classroom may be an appropriate setting whereas other students may need to be in a special education classroom full time, but many students fall somewhere within this spectrum. Students may also require supplementary aids and services (such as an interpreter, resource room or itinerant teacher) to achieve educational goals while being placed in a classroom with students without disabilities, these resources are provided as needed.[2] The LRE for a student is less of a physical location, and more of a concept to ensure that the student is receiving the services that they need to be successful.
If the nature or severity of their disability prevent the student from achieving these goals in a standard classroom, the student would be withdrawn from the standard classroom and be placed in an alternate environment that is more suitable for the student.[3] Schools and public agencies are required to have a continuum of alternative placements for students with disabilities. These alternative placements include separate classes, specialized schools, and homeschooling. This is to ensure that schools are capable of meeting the needs of all students with disabilities. This continuum of placements is not always full inclusion or complete separate schooling, but can be a mix of both standard classes and alternative placements.[2]
Four of the most common types of LRE are general education classroom with support, partial mainstream/inclusion classroom, special education classroom, specialized program outside of the school district. In a general education classroom with support the student is in a general education classroom all day, with added services like an aid, assistive technology, or accommodations/modifications to the curriculum. In a partial mainstream/inclusion classroom the student spends part of the day in the general classroom and part of the day in a special education classroom. In a special education classroom the student spends the day in a specialized classroom with students with similar needs. In a specialized program outside of school district the student could attend a private school, specialized program, or residential program.[4]
Court rulings
Because the law does not clearly state to what degree the least restrictive environment is, courts have had to interpret the LRE principle. In a landmark case interpreting IDEA's predecessor statute (EHA), Daniel R.R. v. State Board of Education (1989), it was determined that students with disabilities have a right to be included in both academic and extracurricular programs of general education. But, the court stated, IDEA does not contemplate an all-or-nothing educational system in which students with disabilities attend either standard or special education. Rather, the act and its regulations require schools to offer a continuum of services. Thus, the school must take intermediate steps where appropriate, such as placing the student in standard education for some academic classes and in special education for others, mainstreaming the student for nonacademic classes only, or providing interaction with non-disabled students during lunch and recess. The appropriate mix will vary from student to student and, it may be hoped, from school year to school year as the student develops. If the school officials have provided the maximum appropriate exposure to non-disabled students, they have fulfilled their obligation under IDEA.[5]
In Board of Education, Sacramento City Unified School District v. Rachel H., 14 F.3d 1398 (9th Cir. 1994), the court identified four factors that need to be taken into consideration when determining if the student's LRE is appropriate:
the educational benefits of integrated settings versus segregated settings
non-academic benefits (primarily social interaction with non-disabled peers)
the effect the student with a disability can have on the teacher and their peers
the cost of supplementary services that will be required for that student to stay in the integrated setting[6]
In other words, the student should receive an appropriate version of the educational and social benefits which non-disabled students routinely receive in school. In broad theory, the court does not allow the education of the student's non-disabled peers to be negatively affected, although applying this test fairly to all the facts and circumstances of a specific situation may be very difficult. The final factor, cost of supplementary services, provides a safeguard for schools so that they do not exceed spending on one particular student.[6]
Specific examples
IDEA protects students whose disabilities fall within 13 categories:
Autism
Deaf-blindness
Deafness
Emotional disturbance
Hearing impairments
Intellectual disabilities
Multiple disabilities
Orthopedic impairments
Other health impairments
Specific learning disabilities
Speech or language impairments
Traumatic brain injury
Visual impairments including blindness
Some of these labels are decided through a rigorous referral process through the school district and others are given based on diagnosis by a medical doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist.[7] Specific examples of applications of the LRE principle for are discussed below.
Autism
According to IDEA, an individual with autism is someone with "a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child's educational performance." IDEA states that an individual who fits these characteristics can receive special education services if a student is exhibiting signs of autism after their third birthday. Characteristics associated with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, fall within three categories: social interaction, behavior, and communication. Common symptoms include unusual fixations, specific routines, disruptive behavior, unusual communication habits, and difficulty understanding social interactions.[8]
In fall 2015, 39.7% of students ages 6–21 who had been diagnosed with autism spent 80% or more of their time in a general classroom. This is compared to 63.9% of students with a developmental delay or 47% with emotional disturbance.[9]
Deaf-blindness
According to IDEA, deaf-blindness is defined as "concomitant [simultaneous] hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness."[10]
Deafness
The least restrictive environment clause states that students should be able to be educated in an environment with "non-disabled peers". However, in the case of deaf students, there are many cases where a mainstream classroom may not be the most inclusive, or least restrictive, environment.
Some accommodations can be made to make a mainstream school more appropriate for a deaf student, such as interpreters, a deaf program within a mainstream school with deaf peers and language models present, or CART services. However, these are not always successful for every deaf student. Deaf residential and day schools provide certain benefits that the typical LRE would not hold, such as placing deaf students into classrooms with kids their own age and amount of hearing loss, and with staff that are certified to work the deaf, to facilitate social interaction. Deaf schools also may have specialized education equipment and extracurricular activities that are made communicably accessible to the deaf to help promote growth emotionally and cognitively.[11]
Studies that have shown that the typical inclusion model for the deaf has some benefits. One study found that a classroom with both hearing and deaf and hard of hearing students actually helped improved signing development for the deaf. It also showed improvement in certain testing scores such as reading vocabulary/comprehension and solving math problems.[12] Additionally, within the IDEA there is a subsection describing alternative appropriate school placements. Within this section special schools are included.[13]
The NAD (National Association of the Deaf) believes that the least restrictive environment for the deaf is an environment that promotes a student's social, cognitive and emotional development with the least amount of communication and language barriers.[14] The NAD supports placement of deaf and hard of hearing students in the standard education setting if the placement decision made was based on a thorough evaluation of the student and their needs. They believe that the placement and resources provided for the student should be based on communication and that the IEP team making the decision should be fully educated on the issues related to sign language and the needs of the deaf population.[14]
Hearing impairments
According to IDEA, a hearing impairment is "an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance but is not included under the definition of 'deafness'."[15]
Intellectual disabilities
According to IDEA, an intellectual disability is defined as "significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently [at the same time] with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child's educational performance."[16]
Multiple disabilities
According to IDEA, multiple disabilities is defined as a "concomitant [simultaneous] impairments (such as intellectual disability-blindness, intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in a special education program solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness."[17]
Orthopedic impairments
According to IDEA, an orthopedic impairment is defined as "a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance" this term includes "impairments caused by a congenital anomaly [birth defects], impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures)."[18]
Other health impairments
According to IDEA, other health impairments are defined as "having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that— (a) is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis [a kidney disorder], rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and (b) adversely affects a child's educational performance."[19]
Specific learning disabilities
According to IDEA, a specific learning disability (SLD) makes up the largest portion of students receiving services. The majority of students receiving services for specific learning disabilities are in mainstream classrooms.
Common learning disabilities include dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, auditory and visual processing disorders, and nonverbal learning disabilities. Early intervention is valuable for all disability categories but given the high frequency of students with learning disabilities, it is even more valuable. 80% of students with a learning disability have trouble reading. Ninety percent of students will read normally if they receive help by the first grade. Seventy-five percent of students who receive help after the age of nine will have some difficulty throughout life.
Accommodations and modifications for students with learning disabilities vary based on the specific kind of learning disability and on the individual and unique needs of the student. Some examples of creating the least restrictive environment for students with learning disabilities include providing an audio recording of instructions or passages, providing text with a larger font, reducing the word count per line of text, and having a designated reader to give the written directions aloud to the student. More examples include allowing verbal responses, having a scribe, using voice recording for responses, etc. Some students may need extended periods for exams, separate testing locations, having the notes in advance, notes only on paper in black and white, etc. Each specific learning disability is different, and each student has unique needs.[20]
Speech or language impairments
IDEA defines a speech or language impairment as "a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a student's educational performance". School speech-language pathologists (SLP) must work with school evaluation teams to identify students who meet certain criteria prior to beginning services.[21]
School speech-language pathologists (SLP) must work with school evaluation teams to identify students who meet certain criteria prior to beginning services.The range and severity of students that meet such criteria has greatly expanded in recent years. In determining the least restrictive environment for a student with a speech or language impairment, it is important to consider the severity of their condition. While students with more severe impairments will benefit more from individualized services, IDEA regulates that students receiving speech-language services should be educated with their peers as much as possible. This often consists of the SLP working in the general classroom with the student and the help of the general education teacher. It needs to be ensured by the SLP that the student is simultaneously meeting individualized needs while in the general classroom. As mentioned previously, students with more severe impairments may still benefit more from individualized services outside of the general classroom. Small group meetings with an SLP outside of the general classroom can also be beneficial for those with similar impairments or needs. Regardless of the environment, a student's IEP must always be addressed while working toward progress in the general curriculum.[22]
Traumatic brain injury
According to IDEA, traumatic brain injuries are defined as "an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance."[23]
Visual impairments including blindness
According to IDEA, visual impairments including blindness are defined as "an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness."[24]
Least Restrictive Environment in Physical Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) describes physical education as a critical component for all individuals ages three to twenty-one. Students with disabilities must be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) in order to receive appropriate education based on the IDEA at no cost to either the parents or students. Students with disabilities based on IDEA, must be placed with students in the general education setting as much as possible, in order to ensure the students living with disability are receiving the same education as their non-disabled peers. Alternative student placement is contingent upon the necessities of the student based on their IEP's and the requirements of the physical activity. Alternative placements must ensure that the student is being given the same enrichments as those who are not being placed elsewhere.
Special education is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs. This involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community, which may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a piece of American legislation that ensures students with a disability are provided with a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) that is tailored to their individual needs. IDEA was previously known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) from 1975 to 1990. In 1990, the United States Congress reauthorized EHA and changed the title to IDEA. Overall, the goal of IDEA is to provide children with disabilities the same opportunity for education as those students who do not have a disability.
An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a legal document under United States law that is developed for each public school child in the U.S. who needs special education. It is created through a team of the child's parent(s) and district personnel who are knowledgeable about the child's needs. IEPs must be reviewed every year to keep track of the child's educational progress.
Mainstreaming, in the context of education, is the practice of placing students with special education needs in a general education classroom during specific time periods based on their skills. This means students who are a part of the special education classroom will join the regular education classroom at certain times which are fitting for the special education student. These students may attend art or physical education in the regular education classrooms. Sometimes these students will attend math and science in a separate classroom, but attend English in a general education classroom. Schools that practice mainstreaming believe that students with special needs who cannot function in a general education classroom to a certain extent belong in the special education environment.
Inclusion in education refers to all students being able to access and gain equal opportunities to education and learning. It arose in the context of special education with an individualized education program or 504 plan, and is built on the notion that it is more effective for students with special needs to have the said mixed experience for them to be more successful in social interactions leading to further success in life. The philosophy behind the implementation of the inclusion model does not prioritize, but still provides for the utilization of special classrooms and special schools for the education of students with disabilities. Inclusive education models are brought into force by educational administrators with the intention of moving away from seclusion models of special education to the fullest extent practical, the idea being that it is to the social benefit of general education students and special education students alike, with the more able students serving as peer models and those less able serving as motivation for general education students to learn empathy.
Special education in the United States enables students with exceptional learning needs to access resources through special education programs. These programs did not always exist. "The idea of excluding students with any disability from public school education can be traced back to 1893, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court expelled a student merely due to poor academic ability". This exclusion would be the basis of education for all individuals with special needs for years to come. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education sparked the belief that the right to a public education applies to all individuals regardless of race, gender, or disability. Finally, special education programs in the United States were made mandatory in 1975 when the United States Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) "(sometimes referred to using the acronyms EAHCA or EHA, or Public Law 94-142) was enacted by the United States Congress in 1975, in response to discriminatory treatment by public educational agencies against students with disabilities." The EAHCA was later modified to strengthen protections to students with disabilities and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA requires states to provide special education and related services consistent with federal standards as a condition of receiving federal funds.
The right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) is an educational entitlement of all students in the United States who are identified as having a disability, guaranteed by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Adapted physical education is the art and science of developing, implementing, and monitoring a carefully designed physical education. Instructional program for a learner with a disability, based on a comprehensive assessment, to give the learner the skills necessary for a lifetime of rich leisure, recreation, and sport experiences to enhance physical fitness and wellness. Principles and Methods of Adapted Physical Education and Recreation. Adapted physical education generally refers to school-based programs for students ages 3–21yrs.
The Post Secondary Transition For High School Students with Disabilities refers to the ordinance that every public school district in the United States must provide all students with disabilities ages 3 through 21 with an individualized and free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. President Gerald R. Ford established this right when in 1975 he signed Public Law 94-142, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA). Parents of children with disabilities and other advocates hailed EAHCA as the "education civil rights act" for their children. Public education gives students with disabilities the opportunity to succeed in life. Specific language on transition was included in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990, and again in the IDEA Amendments of 1997. Special education programs in public schools within the United States receive several different funds through federal and state levels to support the programs.
Dr. Lilli Nielsen was a Danish psychologist in the field of teaching blind children and those with multiple disabilities.
In the United States education system, School Psychological Examiners assess the needs of students in schools for special education services or other interventions. The post requires a relevant postgraduate qualification and specialist training. This role is distinct within school psychology from that of the psychiatrist, clinical psychologist and psychometrist.
Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help students achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and success in the school and community than they would achieve with a typical classroom education. There are different language modalities used in educational setting where students get varied communication methods. A number of countries focus on training teachers to teach deaf students with a variety of approaches and have organizations to aid deaf students.
A resource room is a separate, remedial classroom in a school where students with educational disabilities, such as specific learning disabilities, are given direct, specialized instruction and academic remediation and assistance with homework, and related assignments as individuals or in groups.
Speech and language impairment are basic categories that might be drawn in issues of communication involve hearing, speech, language, and fluency.
The Vanguard School is an approved private school in Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States, approximately twenty-two miles northwest of Philadelphia on the campus of Valley Forge Educational Services.
The Council of Schools and Services for the Blind (COSB) is a consortium of specialized schools in Canada and the United States whose major goal is improving the quality of services to children who are blind and visually impaired.
Adaptive Physical Education (APE) is a physical education program that accommodates the needs of students with disabilities, that may include or be a combination of mobility or physical impairments, sensory impairments, intellectual disabilities, emotional or behavioural disorders. Physical education is important for the health and wellbeing of everyone, regardless of disabilities or not. APE programs are vital in maintaining and enhancing the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Disability studies in education (DSE) is a field of academic study concerned with education research and practice related to disability. DSE scholars promote an understanding of disability from a social model of disability perspective to "challenge social, medical, and psychological models of disability as they relate to education". A DSE perspective situates disability within social and political context and is concerned with the civil and human rights of students with disabilities, including issues of equity, access, and inclusion in educational settings, curricula, and activities.
Inclusive Classroom is a term used within American pedagogy to describe a classroom in which all students, irrespective of their abilities or skills, are welcomed holistically. It is built on the notion that being in a non-segregated classroom will better prepare special-needs students for later life. In the United States, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 guaranteed civil rights to disabled people, though inclusion of disabled students progressed slowly until the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, after which almost half of US students with disabilities were soon in general classrooms.
Disproportionality in special education refers to the unequal representation of certain demographic groups in restrictive placement and discipline, particularly in the United States' public school system. Disproportionality is often displayed as the under- or overrepresentation of specific racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) groups in special education compared to their presence in the overall student population. A child's race and ethnicity may significantly influence the likelihood of being misidentified as needing special education services, raising concerns about fairness, equity, and the potential impact on students' educational outcomes.
References
↑ Bost, Julie (2015). How individualized education plan team members determine least restrictive environment and educational placement (PhD in Education thesis). The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. ProQuest1753917861.
↑ Thomas, Stephen; Rapport, Mary Jane (1998). "Least restrictive environment: Understanding the direction of the courts". ProQuest. 32 (2). ProQuest1839933068.
Leal, Dorothy; Smith, Sean; Shank, Marilyn; Turnbull, Ann; & Turnbull, Rud (2002). Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools (3rd ed.) Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
