Services
provided under Part C of IDEA, the Infants & Toddlers with Disabilities
program, serving ages birth to 3, must be provided in natural
environments. This includes the home and community settings in which
children without disabilities participate. The 2004 law amended this
provision to recognize that there may be instances when a child's
individualized family service plan cannot be implemented satisfactorily
in the natural environment. In these instances, the child's
parents and the other members of the individualized family service plan
team will together make this determination and then identify the most
appropriate setting in which early intervention services can be
provided.
The Preschool
Grants section of the law, providing services for preschool children ages
3-5, places emphasis for LRE on how the disability affects the child's
participation in appropriate activities.
The law requires each
public agency to ensure that a continuum of alternative placements is
available to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities for special
education and related services. The continuum provides a range of services
to meet the unique learning needs of each individual. It includes
instruction in regular classes, special classes, special schools, home
instruction, and instruction in hospitals and institutions.
In determining the
individual's educational placement, each public agency shall ensure that
the placement decision is made by a group of persons, including the
parents, and other persons knowledgeable about the individual, the meaning
of the evaluation data, and the placement options in conformity with the
law's LRE provisions. The individual's placement is determined at least
annually, is based on the individual education plan (IEP), and is as close
as possible to the individual's home.
Unless the
individual's IEP requires some other arrangement, the individual is
educated in the school that he or she would attend if nondisabled. In
selecting the LRE, consideration is given to any potential harmful effect
on the individual or the quality of services that he or she needs. An
individual with a disability is not removed from education in an
age-appropriate regular classroom solely because of needed modifications
in the general curriculum.
The principle of LRE is intended to ensure that an individual with a
disability is served in a setting where he or she can be educated
successfully. Even though IDEA does not mandate regular class placement
for every disabled individual by the placement team, IDEA does presume
that the first placement option considered is the school the individual
would attend if he or she were not disabled. The full range of
supplemental aids and services that if provided would facilitate the
individuals placement in the regular education setting must be considered
before an individual can be placed outside the regular classroom. However,
individuals need not fail in the regular classroom before another
placement can be considered.
In all cases, placement decisions must be individually determined on the
basis of each individual's abilities and needs, and not solely on factors
such as category of disability, significance of disability, availability
of special education and related services, configuration of the service
delivery system, availability of space, or administrative convenience. It
is each individual's IEP that forms the basis for the placement decision.
Most importantly, parents have the right to be members of the group that
decides the educational placement of the child.
In
2004, the United States Congress reauthorized the
Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA is the Federal law that mandates
that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) be provided for
individuals with disabilities, ages 6-21.