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Least Restrictive Environment
The Brown v. Board of Education and Pennsylvania Assn. for Retarded Children (PARC) cases helped establish the ideals and foundations of educational equity that led to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (P.L. 91–230) and the least restrictive environment (LRE) principle. The Brown landmark decision held that racial segregation was inherently unequal. Subsequent legal cases (PARC v. Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education, both of 1972) applied the Brown ruling to education and forced the public schools to provide services for children with disabilities. These rulings were then extended to providing services to children in the least restrictive environment and placement in institutions was seen as stigmatizing these children. Thus, children were placed in programs that provided the most interaction with nondisabled peers.
Basic Aspects of Least Restrictive Environment
LRE provides disabled students access to independent learning environments and inclusive peer relations as much as is possible for them. LRE may range from residential treatment to full inclusion in the regular classroom, depending on an individual child's need. These principles have changed in the past decade or so. Initially the goal was to “mainstream” the child into the regular classroom for as much of the day as possible. In this manner, children were in the regular classroom for many subjects, generally including art, music, physical education, and science/social studies. This practice required the child to go to the special education classroom for individual tutoring and support for the remainder of the school day.
Advocates for disabled students in the 1960s and 1970s promoted physical and social integration of disabled students with nondisabled peers. At that time, educational placements focused on a child's strengths, and a range of placements was developed to decide a disabled child's optimal education setting. Because this regulation was not defined absolutely and words like “mainstreaming” were not used in the law, the definition has been molded by cases in the judicial system over the decades.
In recent years the pendulum has swung to “inclusion.” In this case, children are in the regular classroom and the special education teacher comes to them. There are variations on this theme, but generally the child participates in the regular classroom with additional support provided by a paraprofessional aide or a special education teacher.
Court Precedents
Many court decisions have supported LRE. Daniel R.R. v. State Board of Education (1989) was a two-part test developed to decide whether compliance with LRE was present. First, it must be determined whether the regular classroom can meet the child's needs with additional aides and services provided. Then, if placement outside the classroom is appropriate, the Individualized Education Program (IEP) committee (a team of educators and parents) must decide whether the school has mainstreamed the child to the greatest extent possible (Prasse, 1995). Additional factors that need to be considered are whether the school has tried inclusion, comparing the benefits gained from regular class participation versus special education, and what are the negative effects of the child's inclusion on the other children in the class.
The LRE principle states that unless a regular education setting is in some way prohibitive to the education of the disabled child (or fellow students), they must participate (to some degree) in activities with their nondisabled peers. According to this principle, the first consideration of a child's educational placement is how and where he or she would be educated if not disabled, and can the child learn in that environment with appropriate aids and services.
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