Placement and LRE for Children with Disabilities

1
Placement and LRE for Children with Disabilities

• Kristin E. Hildebrant
• Ohio Legal Rights Service
• khildebrant_at_olrs.state.oh.us

2
LRE

• All children with a disability must be educated
  in the least restrictive environment or LRE.
• 34 CFR 300.114
• Federal regulations can be found at idea.ed.gov

3
LRE

• To the maximum extent appropriate, children with
  disabilities are educated with typical peers.
• Separate schooling only when nature and severity
  of disability prevents satisfactory education in
  regular education (with use of supplementary aids
  and services).

4
LRE

• A state may not have a funding mechanism that
  results in violations of LRE mandate.
• Funds cannot be distributed on the basis of type
  of setting that results in violations of LRE
  mandate.

5
LRE for Preschool

• Natural environment can be the LRE for a
  preschool child.
• Natural environment concept is borrowed from Part
  C of IDEA-Early Intervention.
• Flexible concept.
• Includes environments where child would be in
  ordinary course of life.

6
LRE for Preschool

• Natural environment is defined as including a
  child's home, day care center or private nursery
  school and other community settings in which
  children without disabilities participate.

7
LRE for Preschool

• The LRE for preschoolers can be accomplished in a
  variety of settings, including Head Start, local
  child care centers, and programs in district
  elementary schools.

8
LRE for EI

• Case demonstrating broadening of natural
  environment concept in EI.
• In Andrew M. and Deirdre M. ex rel. P.M. and R.M.
  v. Delaware County Office of Mental Health and
  Mental Retardation, 48 IDELR 30 (3d Cir. 2007).
  The agency had to provide compensatory services
  after failing to provide early intervention
  services to 2-year-old twins at their private
  preschool.

9
LRE for Preschool

• OSEP has taken the position that states are not
  mandated to fund the placement of typical
  students at preschools for students with
  disabilities in order to create an integrated
  setting. 64 Fed. Reg. 12406, 12639 (1999). Accord
  Letter to Neveldine, 22 IDELR 630 (OSEP 1994)
  Letter to Burke, 211 IDELR 133 (OSEP 1979).
• Other options are available, including private
  schools.

10
LRE for Preschool

• But, schools must ensure LRE mandate is met.
• Parents were entitled to reimbursement for the
  reasonable costs of ABA services and a
  supplementary aide because the district's
  proposed preschool setting was not the child's
  LRE. L.B. and J.B. ex rel. K.B. v. Nebo Sch.
  Dist., 41 IDELR 206 (10th Cir. 2004). The child
  benefited more from her parents' mainstream
  placement in a private preschool than she would
  have from the district's "hybrid" classroom.

11
LRE for Preschool

• Parents who insisted that their preschool
  daughter should be provided a program in a
  preschool with typically developing peers were
  successful in showing that the district did not
  offer their child a program in the LRE. Child
  Development Services, Androscoggin County, 45
  IDELR 51 (SEA ME 2005).
• The district claimed it was not allowed to pay
  for tuition costs at typical preschools that were
  not approved to provide special education
  services through a contract with the district

12
LRE for Preschool

• Neither state nor regional payment policies can
  be drafted or applied so as to alter the LRE
  mandate contained in the IDEA and state special
  education law.
• District was required to provide LRE.

13
LRE in Preschool

• Because a district was unable to prove a
  preschool child with PDD could not benefit from a
  regular education setting, it had to reimburse
  the parents for tuition costs of a private
  mainstream program and offer related services at
  that site. Caldwell-West Caldwell Bd. of Educ.,
  36 IDELR 118 (SEA NJ 2002). Additionally, the
  district denied the child FAPE when an
  administrator unilaterally overruled the
  placement decision of its IEP team.

14
LRE in Preschool

• If LRE is more restrictive, still have to ensure
  access to the general education curriculum.

15
LRE Options

• Participation (even part time) of preschool
  children with disabilities in other preschool
  programs operated by public agencies (such as
  Head Start).
• Placing children with disabilities in private
  school or other governmental or private agency
  programs that integrate children with
  disabilities and nondisabled children.
• Locating classes for preschool children with
  disabilities in regular elementary schools.

16
Continuum of Options

• 34 CFR 300.115
• Each district must ensure that a continuum of
  alternative placements is available to meet the
  needs of its students with disabilities for
  special education and related services.

17
Continuum of Options

• The continuum must include instruction in regular
  classes, special classes, special schools, home
  instruction, and instruction in hospitals and
  institutions and
• Make provision for supplementary services (such
  as resource room or itinerant instruction) to be
  provided in conjunction with regular class
  placement.

18
Continuum of Options

• Options must be available to the extent necessary
  to implement the IEP of each disabled student.
• The placement team must select the option on the
  continuum in which it determines that the
  student's IEP can be implemented.
• Any alternative placement outside of the regular
  educational environment must maximize
  opportunities for the student to interact with
  typical peers.

19
Continuum of Options

• Failure to consider less restrictive options and
  be able to document consideration of LRE can
  result in liability. See. Lancaster-Lebanon
  Intermediate Unit 13, 4 ECLPR 475,103 LRP 20344
  (2003).
• The IHO awarded reimbursement for the parents'
  unilateral placement of their child in a general
  preschool setting with children who did not have
  disabilities

20
Continuum of Options

• The district's IEP was deficient because it
  failed to present data of the child's performance
  in any natural setting against which the IHO
  could compare the child's goal attainment.
• And the child's placement was inappropriate
  because the district failed to consider placing
  the child in a preschool with appropriate role
  models for the development of language and social
  skills.

21
Continuum of Options

• Placements in restrictive/non-natural
  environments cannot be defended without data that
  shows child cannot be satisfactorily educated in
  LRE with supplementary aids and services.

22
Continuum of Options

• parents of disabled students must be informed
  (prior written notice) that the district is
  required to have a full continuum of placement
  options and
• What options were considered and the reasons for
  rejecting the options.
• 34 CFR 300.503

23
Questions?