Directions: As you read and review Yell’s (2012, 3rd ed.) text keep the following statements and questions in mind as a way to focus your reading and study of special education law. These same items could appear in a slightly altered form (e.g., select response, essay, or short answer) on your weekly quiz for the course.
Chapter 11 Least Restrictive Environment
1. Is the least restrictive environment always the general education setting? Explain your answer.
2. Can you name a U.S. Supreme Court case interpreting the LRE mandate? Explain
3. Does the IDEA mandate that all educational facilities, including private schools, implement the LRE regulations?
4. What is the main point of legislation and litigation regarding LRE and FAPE in terms of the school’s primary obligation?
5. Would you agree that an appropriate interpretation of the LRE litigation is that good faith efforts must be made to educate students with disabilities in integrated setting? Explain your answer.
6. Distinguish the terms: Mainstreaming, inclusion, and Least Restrictive Environment.
7. Explain why or it the IDEA imposes obligations on schools to consider placing students in general education classrooms with supplementary aids and services before considering more restrictive alternatives.
8. Does the IDEA create an absolute right for a student with disabilities to be educated in his or her neighborhood school?
9. Can a school district refuse to place a student in the least restrictive environment when it does not have the appropriate placement option?
10. Explain if an IEP team can use a student’s effect on his or her peers in arriving at their determination about making the determination regarding the least restrictive environment.
11. Who makes the LRE determination?
12. What do you have to know about the concept of least restrictive environment in order to identify a misinterpretation of it?
13. Are there any settings that are never the least restrictive environment for any special education student? Explain
14. When determining the LRE for a student, IEP teams should do what?
15. Which factor from Rachel H. was a very important factor to the court in the Clyde K. decision?
16. Is there a way to rank the continuum of placements in terms of the degree of restrictiveness of the setting? Explain and illustrate.
17. In determining the LRE for a student IEP teams should consider what factors?
18. Although the results of LRE litigation varies, all the cases (e.g., Roncker, Greer, Daniel R.R., Rachel H., Clyde K, Hartmann) reviewed in the text have indicated what general theme?
19. According to the two part Daniel RR test, in judging a school's compliance with LRE the court first must ask whether the child could be educated in the regular classroom with aids and services and if they cannot, the court must ask what question?
20. Which factor from Rachel H. was the most important to the court in the Clyde K. decision?
21. Explain Champagne’s sequential model for determining placement. 287f
22. Describe four factors that school district personnel should consider when determining placements. 283ff
23. Discuss the difference between LRE, mainstreaming, and inclusion. 270f
24. Explain the following statement: The IDEA requires the maximum integration that will work for a student. 284ff
25. Describe and explain the continuum of alternative placements. What did Congress include the continuum in the IDEA? 272ff
26. The concept of least restrictive environment has been referred to as a rebuttable presumption. What is a rebuttable presumption with regards to LRE? 271
27. Describe two of the following cases. Indicate in which circuits the cases are controlling authority. Cases: Daniel R.R. v. El Paso (1989), Sacramento City Unified School District v. Rachel H. (1994), Clyde K. v. Puyallup School District (1994), Hartmann v. Loudoun County Board of Education (1997). 276ff
28. What is the statutory definition of least restrictive environment? Explain the two major parts of this definition. 271ff
29. Describe supplementary aids or services that may be used to help a student to be educated in the LRE. 286ff
30. When determining LRE, can the IEP team consider a student’s effects on the education of other students? If so, how? If not, why not? 275
31. Explain the following statement: The relative restrictiveness of an educational environment can only be determined in light of a student's individual needs. 284ff
32. Does the IDEA guarantee that special education services must be provided in a student’s neighborhood school? Why or why not? 274
33. Does the LRE mandate of the IDEA apply to nonacademic programs and settings as well as academic setting? 275
34. Explain how the general curriculum should be part of placement decisions. 275