William Kritsonis, School Law, Ch 3 Least Restrictive - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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William Kritsonis, School Law, Ch 3 Least Restrictive

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Title: 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.

6
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.

9
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.

10
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

11
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.

12
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.

13
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

14
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

15
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.

17
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."
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