w3d

Week Three Instructor Guidance

Welcome to Week Three!! Last week you spent a good deal of time analyzing the nuances of one section of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).  As we continue into Week 3, we build on your understanding of the special education law and explicitly focus on another element, the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).  You will also study another key legal case, Sacramento City School Board v. Rachel Holland. 

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

The LRE mandate established procedures to guarantee that students with disabilities are educated with their nondisabled peers as much as possible.  This means that placing students with disabilities in separate classrooms or schools is a last resort where teams need to consider less restrictive options, such as the general education classroom when appropriate, first.  The LRE is a continuum of educational placement and service options offered to students with disabilities in the public school setting. 

The below link will take you to an approximately 8 minute video that explains LRE and a perspective of the history of placements we have been studying.

 

Least Restrictive Environment Explained (Links to an external site.)  

The type of services required for an individual student as well as the intensity of those services should be guided by the systematic assessment of the student’s needs.  Your next course in the MA, Special Education program, ESE610 Assessment and Evaluation of Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities presents these elements for your consideration and relates them back to the concepts in this course. 

These features of the IDEA work in conjunction to guarantee that the legal procedures are being maintained for all students with disabilities.  Having a strong and valid assessment drives the decisions that are made for placement and services.  However, the impact of instructional placements on a student’s academic, social or emotional performance remains a debatable point (Carr-George, Vannest, Willson, & Davis, 2009). 

Continuum of Placement Options

Even though the LRE for most students with mild-to-moderate disabilities may be the general education classroom, school districts must also provide a variety of placement options, or a continuum of services.  Across this continuum the general education classroom is viewed as the most typical setting or the least restrictive setting, with home and hospital as the most restrictive settings. It is the IEP team’s responsibility to determine which placement constitutes the LRE for each student depending on his/her unique needs.

 Figure 2.Continuum of placement options.  Source:  http://www.atlantapublicschools.us/page/180 (Links to an external site.)

Depending on the individual needs of the students as identified in the assessment results, students with disabilities may receive special education in a variety of settings.  Some students may be enrolled full time in the general education classes and receive only indirect services from special education personnel.  Others may require more intensive services and their LRE may be a self-contained classroom. 

How is this possible when we stated earlier that general education should be the first consideration for placement?  The law offers a specific answer:  

“That separate classes, separate schooling or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily”  (Pub. L. No. 94-142, Sec. 612(a)(5)).

Since IDEA’s reauthorization in 2004, more children with disabilities are being educated inside the general education classroom.  According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2014), in 1991 only 30% of students with disabilities were educated for the majority of the school day in the general education setting.  By 2011 that percentage had risen to over 60%. 

The following article (Links to an external site.)  focuses on the emphasis that the Obama administration is making on inclusion of preschool students in general education class as is required by the IDEA.  What is important is that the LRE mandate is overarching by age group and severity of disability. 

Week Three Discussion Guidance

Is That Legal? For your discussion this week you will be working with Mr. Franklin to explain the LRE mandate in concise terms so that he understands how this portion of the IDEA relates to him and the students in his classroom.  You are required to include your own personal or professional experiences with making these determinations for students with disabilities.  You will also be selecting a scholarly article from the Ashford Library to support your explanation of the LRE. If you have not had the opportunity to be involved in this way, then you will instead explain what you have learned throughout your courses regarding the LRE. 

As you craft your response this week, you will assume the role of Mr. Franklin, the general education teacher, who does not feel knowledgeable to support students with disabilities in the classroom.  Asking questions from his perspective will be included in your responses.

 

Please review the discussion board rubric prior to your initial post to ensure you are fully meeting each of the set criteria to earn full credit. As per the rubric requirements your initial post should include relevant professional, personal, or other real-world experiences in a manner that is rich in thought and provides valuable insight into the topic.

Additionally, all elements of the discussion board prompt should be thoroughly addressed with strong and precise connections to previous and/or current course content, or to real-life situations. When substantively replying to your peers’ post, be sure to provide a thorough and constructive analysis relating the response to relevant course concepts that incorporates pertinent follow-up thoughts or questions about the topic, and demonstrates respect for the diverse opinions of fellow learners.

Finally, while it may difficult to do for all the responses to your posts, please make an effort to respond back to those who took the time to respond to your initial post.  It is the courteous and gracious thing to do, and has the potential to make our classroom community discussions more interesting and thought-provoking. Answering questions posed by your peers invites continued learning, meaningful application, and relevant extension of the discussion.

Week Three Assignment Guidance

Case Analysis: Sacramento City School Board of Education v. Rachel H.

The Rachel Holland case was a minor dispute that ultimately became a major court case in California and was centered on how the concept of LRE is defined and interpreted as intended by the IDEA.  Rachel was an 11-year-old student who was intellectually disabled.  She participated in a variety of separate placements over the past four years with minimal time being included in the general education classroom.  During the IEP team meeting, her parents disagreed with the district’s offer of placement and services because they desired to increase her time in the general education classroom. 

Your required reading this week describes the details of this case, the finding of the court and how this case has impacted the reasonable attempts that educators must make to place students with disabilities in inclusive setting to ensure that the LRE mandate is satisfied.

There are specific guidelines for the written portion of this assignment as well as the content.  In order to maximize your score, it is essentially that you follow these instructions closely.

Make sure to use the Grading Rubric as a self-checklist before submitting the final copy of your assignment to confirm you have met or exceeded each required expectation. The highest level of achievement on the rubric is “distinguished”, which is only earned through exceeding posted expectations at the proficiency level. Please remember you are in a masters-level program. Therefore, your writing, research, and content are held to graduate-level expectations.

ePortfolio

Save this written assignment in your electronic portfolio (ePortfolio).  As you recall, your ePortfolio serves as a collection of evidence to support the development and mastery of competencies as you progress through this program and you will re-visit it in ESE 699, your MASE program capstone course.

References

Carr-George, C. Vannest, K. J., Willson, V., & Davis, J. L. (2009).  The participation and performance of students with emotional and behavioral disorders in a state accountability assessment in reading.Behavioral Disorders, 25, 66-78.

Feds Call For Greater Inclusion In Preschools - Disability Scoop. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/05/19/feds-inclusion-preschools/20318/

National Center for Education Statistics.(2014, January).Percentage of students ages 6–21 served under the individuals with disabilities education act, part b, placed in a regular public school environment, by amount of time spent inside general classes: Selected school years 1990–91 through 2011–12 [Graph]. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgg.asp (Links to an external site.)