This post was originally published in The Weeklyish on April 23, 2021.
Discussing the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is a tricky business.
Especially, when as a special education teacher, you are expected to convince a family that a more restrictive environment is in the best interest of their child.
I was put in that position a number of times over my career as a special education teacher, and despite my strong preference as an inclusionist, there was always an uncomfortable tension.
Do I speak up and advocate for what I thought was right even if my colleagues (or the family) thought a segregated special education classroom was more appropriate?
As I’ve written about before, sometimes I did speak my mind, but many times I kept my thoughts to myself (which brings me a lot of shame).
One such instance was during an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting where the school team was recommending moving the student to a more restrictive placement, a disability-specific classroom. The family was adamant that they were not going to entertain a different placement than their current general education classroom.
The discussion centered around the behavioral and sensory needs of the student and how much time the student spent outside the classroom decompressing from being overwhelmed. The position of the school team was that in the recommended special education classroom, the behavioral and sensory needs of the student could be addressed and it would be the best place for the student to learn and make progress on IEP goals and objectives. It is worth noting that in this particular instance, the student was on grade level for all their academics.
The school staff member that was leading the IEP meeting finally said that the district offer of FAPE (a Free and Appropriate Public Education) was this self-contained special education classroom and that if the family disagreed with that recommendation, there were options at their disposal, included filing for due process.
Fast forward a few years, and I learned that rather than fighting the recommendation of the district, the family removed their child and homeschooled them.
I think about this situation quite a bit, and while it certainly isn’t a unique example, what as an educator could I have done differently? Even if I did speak up and say that I didn’t think the disability-specific special education classroom was appropriate, I was only one person on the IEP team. There was no guarantee that the team would have changed their recommendation.
What I have now, that I wish I had then, is a better understanding of the concept of the LRE and how to facilitate placement decisions. It’s been my experience that special education teachers are often experts in how to adapt curriculum and implement academic and behavioral interventions, but not well equipped to have discussions about LRE. We educators look to special education administrators to be fluent in that language. But what if they themselves don’t know how to lead this conversation in IEP meetings in an authentic way, or don’t really know what the IDEA regulations say?
Here’s what IDEA actually requires.
The general education classroom comes first. A student with a disability can be removed only when they can’t be educated there satisfactorily, even with supplementary aids and services. And they can’t be removed just because they need modifications to the general education curriculum.
Special education is a service, not a place, even though many schools and districts create places (or programs) for students to go to receive services.
The Federal Register notes that data shows “that if disabled students are simply placed in general education classrooms without necessary supports and modifications they are more likely to drop out of school than their nondisabled peers.” The burden of proof lies with the school district to show it has tried everything to include the student in a general education classroom.
Case law backs this up. If I was sitting in those IEP meetings today, I would make sure the team answered the following questions during the placement discussion:
- How have we tried to provide the services the student requires in the general education classroom?
- What educational and nonacademic benefits would the student be missing out on by being removed from the general education classroom?
- If removal is necessary, when will the student be included with their peers, and when will the student return to the general education classroom?
As recent as 2000, the 3rd Circuit Court decision in T.R. v. Kingwood Township clarified that the LRE is the one that, “to the greatest extent possible, satisfactorily educates the disabled child with nondisabled children, in the same school the child would attend in the child were not disabled.”
Asking the right questions in IEP meetings is a start. But placement is a decision about where a student learns, not a judgment about who they are. When a team starts with what a student needs to learn, and how to support that learning in general education, the disability label stops making the decision.
You aren’t alone in this. Educators, families and advocates across the country want schools where every learner belongs. It’s always time to fix what is wrong.