Talk:Least restrictive environment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 31 January 2022 and 11 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Relijohn (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Hmmitchellxo, Leilabarbera, Emgurrola33, MaddieAcheson.

I noticed that the "Inclusion" link at the bottom just leads to the "Special Education" article. My understanding was that "inclusion" was kind of a subset of Special Ed (inclusion is when Special Ed students are included in a classroom with "regular" students as opposed to Special Ed kids being taught in a "self-contained" room). Three suggestions: 1. Delete the link (as most people probably assume it will take them to an article about inclusion) 2. Start an article about inclusion and connect the link to this new article 3. As long as no article on inclusion has been written, if you believe the link should be kept, then I agree that linking to the Special Ed page is the best place (it does mention and define inclusion there) Thanks! Dlkcsmith 23:47, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Inclusion link going to special education page

You're right. I don't know why "inclusion" would go to special education --- should just go straight to special eduation. All fixed.  :-) Rosmoran 01:01, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

"Inclusion" article does exist

I was wondering if perhaps there should be a link to "Inclusion (education)" after all. I found that there is an article on inclusion (separate from the "inclusive classroom" article) and I don't believe it has any other articles that link to it. I am a relatively inexperienced teacher, so I'll let someone else make the change. (Perhaps the 2 articles "Inclusive classroom" and "Inclusion (education)" could be merged?)

You're right. There should be a link to this article. Don't be reluctant to participate directly. Check out the Wiki Principle [Wikipedia:Be bold]! If you haven't done any direct editing yet, this is a good one to get your feet wet.  :-)

Best,

Rosmoran 09:32, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

What "restrictive" Means

I disagree with the postulate on the main page that a more restrictive environment necessarily means less time in contact with the regular ed kids. To provide the LRE for a student with a specific learning disability in math, for example, the IEP might call for the student to receive help from a paraprofessional in the regular ed classroom.

At university we were presented with the idea of LRE as being a continuum, the perfect LRE being the student in the regular ed classroom without any supports beyond those designed by the teacher, and the most restrictive environment being a total pull-out model where the child's main classroom is the special ed room (this is what you'd expect with your medically fragile children, or severe autism cases, for instance). In between you might see the child in the regular ed classroom with special ed support, the child pulled out for part of the day for resource room services, the child integrated into the classroom only for lunch, special classes, etc., and finally complete pull-out. Would this sort of description be appropriate for the main page? RyanGrant 22:37, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi, RyanGrant.

I'm not sure precisely which sentences / sections you are referring to, but in my opinion the article needs substantial revision in all areas --- content accuracy, basic organization of the material, and style. I haven't had a chance to delve into it yet. Please feel free to dive in!

The continuum you describe is exactly what IDEA requires. The only thing I would add is that there are a few more restrictive environments on that same continuum: home-based instruction, hospital based instruction, and residential placement centers.

Best,

Rosmoran 03:46, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Defining "Least Restrictive Environment?"
This article, based on my education and experience, describes inclusion, not "Least Restrictive Environment." When I went to school for my Teaching Degree, I learned that an LRE has to do with the classroom itself. If putting a particular student near the shelf of manipulatives, and that child gets distracted because she keeps grabbing the manipulatives in order to play with them instead of paying attention, then to modify the environment to be an LRE for that student you would either move her to a less distracting location in the room or move the distraction to a location where it will no longer distract her. If a desk wobbles every time a child writes, especially if that student's special need is writing, then leveling the desk to cut down on frustration would be providing a Least Restrictive Environment. It has to do with what the teacher is doing IN THE CLASSROOM to eliminate extra sources of distraction, frustration and concern. A child with ADD might have a clay ball to squish in one hand to help keep focused (some students with ADD must be physically moving or they can't concentrate). That is another example of providing a least restrictive environment. I agree that this article needs MAJOR modification to more accurate. I will look through my materials from school to try and locate some articles from professional journals to cite.
Gpopovski (talk) 14:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)gpopovskiGpopovski (talk) 14:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I hope that you're able to find something! The education pages are, in general, horribly sourced, with a constant battle to keep personal opinions and "how we do it at my child's school" off the pages. In this case, most likely, the answer is 'all of the above': a regular classroom is less restrictive than a self-contained classroom, and so is a regular classroom that's been rearranged. WhatamIdoing (talk) 00:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Merge proposal

Articles related to special education get a lot of merge proposals. If you're going to propose one for this page, please remember that this page is about a single, United States-only legal concept. It is meaningless in the rest of the world. Consequently, proposing merges to pages that are about worldwide practices is inappropriate. WhatamIdoing (talk) 04:28, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Changes

Introduction

Perhaps change the grammar in the first line: In the U.S. the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a special education law that mandates regulation for students with disabilities in order to protect their rights as students and the rights of their parents. One amendment that was added to IDEA is the Least Restrictive Environment Clause (LRE) which states that students will disabilities should be in the regular education classroom with their non-disabled peers. DEFINE what LRE means. I would change the line “The student should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers.” This is not necessarily true for every individual, it depends on how the IEP it written and what it says. Not all students need an aid in the individual within the regular classroom setting. Change “special school” to out of district placement. Define what the “team” is who determines where a student is placed (the IEP team normally consists of the parents, regular education teacher, special education teacher, psychology chairs, sometimes the vice principal, and the student if over a certain age). This introduction section needs sources. A14costa (talk) 17:37, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Court Rulings

Great information in this section. I would change the grammar in certain areas of this paragraph because they are run on sentences. “Thus, the school must take intermediate steps where appropriate, such as placing the child in regular education for some academic classes and in special education for others, mainstreaming the child for nonacademic classes only, or providing interaction with non-disabled children during lunch and recess.” There is a lot of information here so I would break up this sentence into a couple of them as to avoid run on sentences. The line “it may be hoped” does not make sense in the sentence it is in. I suggest perhaps going into more depth of the court case that led to the creation of LRE because the title of this section is “court ruling.” Maybe explain why this case went to court to begin with and why LRE was a result of the ruling. If not, maybe change the title of the section. This article needs a conclusion as well as more sources and citations. Overall, this article was very informative and worth reading and stays neutral. I would just go into more depth in certain areas and with certain legality terms, i.e. FAPE. I would also review for grammar and sentence structure errors. A14costa (talk) 17:35, 18 March 2018 (UTC)