- Least Restrictive Environment - LRE
Your child’s education must be in the least restrictive environment or "LRE". LRE means that placement of students with disabilities in special classes, separate schools or other removal from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that, even with the use of supplementary aids and services, education cannot be satisfactorily achieved. In all cases, special education services should be provided in the least restrictive environment. Each year your child’s IEP should be developed to ensure t
1. your child’s placement is based on his or her IEP.
2. your child’s placement is as close as possible to his or her
3. home. Unless your child’s IEP requires another arrangement, your child should be educated in the school he or she would have attended if he or she did not have a disability.
4. when making a decision about LRE, the Committee considers any possible harmful effect on your child or the quality of the services that he or she needs.
5. your child is not removed from education in a regular classroom with other children of the same age only because the general curriculum needs to be modified.
According to the IDEA's LRE or mainstreaming policy, school districts are required to educate students with disabilities in regular classrooms with their nondisabled peers, in the school they would attend if not disabled, to the maximum extent appropriate.
source: WrightLaw.com
"Least restrictive environment" means that a student who has a disability should have the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate. They should have access to the general education curriculum, extracurricular activities, or any other program that non-disabled peers would be able to access. The student should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers. Academically, a resource room may be available within the school for specialized instruction, with typically no more than two hours per day of services for a student with learning disabilities. Should the nature or severity of his or her disability prevent the student from achieving these goals in a regular education setting, then the student would be placed in a more restrictive environment, such as a special school, classroom within the current school, or a hospital program. Generally, the less opportunity a student has to interact and learn with non-disabled peers, the more the placement is considered to be restricted.
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Generally, a child with a disability should be served in the regular classroom with as much interaction with his or her non-handicapped classmates as possible. A child with a disability may only be removed from the regular classroom when the nature or severity of the disability is such that the education in regular classes cannot be achieved satisfactorily, even with the use of supplementary aids and services. However, for specific areas of intensive training, it is appropriate to remove a child from the regular classroom. For example, a child with a reading disability may appropriately be educated in most academic areas in the regular classroom with assistance in note taking and test taking, but it may be necessary to remove the child from the classroom to work in a small group or one-on-one specifically in the area of reading. The child's placement and the services he or she will receive depend on the child's individual needs, not on administrative convenience.
source: Wright Law
source: Wright Law