Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

Least restrictive environment (LRE) describes the principle in which children with disabilities, or special needs, are granted the chance to study alongside their nondisabled classmates as much as possible. LRE is a federal requirement established through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a piece of US legislation drafted to help further the educational opportunities of children with disabilities. LRE is intended to take into consideration both the capabilities of individual disabled children and the needs of their nondisabled peers, so that both groups are given the same opportunities to be taught together without disruption to either's educational experience. This principle of education is often associated with such terms as mainstreaming, inclusion, and integration, all of which fall under the guidelines of LRE.

Brief History

The origins of IDEA began with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) legislation that was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on November 29, 1975. This piece of civil rights legislation enabled thousands of children categorized as disabled to gain the same level of education as their nondisabled peers in public schools for the first time. Prior to this law, only one in five children with disabilities was provided with a public school education. As a result, public schools were forced to evaluate the abilities and resulting needs of all physically and mentally disabled children and provide an educational program that matched the educational experience provided to their able-bodied peers as closely as possible. It also provided parents of disabled children with outlets to participate in their child's education and challenge any evaluations made about their capabilities and resulting educational curriculum.

Over the course of its life, many amendments to the EHA were passed, including a 1986 amendment that allowed children with disabilities to gain access to special help from birth. In 1990, the legislation's name was officially changed to the Individuals with Disabilities Act. The least restrictive environment (LRE) provision was part of the original language of EHA. However, due to some vagueness in the language of the LRE provision, there has been legal uncertainty about what constitutes a least restrictive environment in a school setting. Several legal challenges have sought greater clarification on how to interpret the LRE mandate. As a result, the underlying philosophies and guiding principles behind LRE continue to evolve.

Overview

One of the basic provisions of IDEA is the right of all children to receive a free public education, regardless of any potential disability. As a provision of this, LRE is meant to allow students with disabilities to participate in general education classes with their nondisabled classmates. All public schools are required to adapt an educational curriculum that provides a basic level of education that meets each student's individual needs. LRE is one of six provisions of IDEA. The other components outlined in this legislation are an individualized education program (IEP), a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), an appropriate evaluation, parent and teacher participation, and procedural safeguards. LRE determines where a child is taught at school, what resources are provided, and with what type of educational professionals they interact.

An IEP establishes a team composed of educational professionals who work with the parents of the disabled child to create a curriculum and set of services that will allow the child to be educated at a public school without charge. The LRE provision is meant to allow the child to engage and learn with his or her peers "to the maximum extent possible," according to the specific language of IDEA. This may include the use of special services, such as a human assistant, or supplementary aids. Supplementary aids can include any accommodations, modifications, or services that promote a disabled child's ability to learn alongside his or her classmates. This may include extra time to complete tests, have tests read aloud to them, be given modified or shorter tests and assignments, or have in-class tools that accommodate their physical limitations, such as special monitors. Under LRE, a child should only be placed into separate special education classes if these supplementary aids and special services cannot accommodate his or her assessed disability in regular classes. Due to the LRE provision, in 2004, 96 percent of all disabled children received their primary education at a public school as opposed to a special facility. In 2010, almost 60 percent of all children classified as having a disability attended classes as part of their school's general population for at least 80 percent of the school day. By 2022, this number had risen to 67 percent.

There are different forms of LRE. These differences have arisen from the lack of specific detail in the provisions of IDEA about how various forms of disability should be accommodated. As a result, determining how a disabled child may be best accommodated in often left to the IEP team of teachers and parents. The most basic forms of LRE are inclusion, integration, and mainstreaming. While they are not defined in the language of IDEA, they have been adopted by educators to describe the various methods that schools use to meet the requirements of the LRE provision of IDEA. Mainstreaming means placing a child with special needs into the general population on either a partial or full-time basis. Mainstreamed children are also likely to spend part of the day in special education classes. Inclusion generally allows a child with disabilities to spend the full day in the general population. Full inclusion may also mean enabling the child to participate in extracurricular activities and all other parts of the public school experience. Integration is used to describe participation in the normative activities of the school, such as using the same hallways, lunchrooms, and other activities. The objective behind integration is to allow the disabled child to mingle with the general student population, regardless of whether he or she participates in classes with them.

Beyond this basic terminology, there is a variety of potential LRE scenarios. The most common situation involves having a child spend part of the day mainstreaming in a general education classroom and part of the day receiving instruction in a special education class with either individual instruction or in small groups. Alternatively, children with special needs may be provided with the opportunity for full inclusion in the general population with various means of support, or they may spend each day in a special education classroom learning material with students with similar needs. Children with more demanding needs may be best served in a specialized regional program funded by the school district that may be located in a facility outside the child's local school.

Bibliography

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