What is the Least Restrictive Environment?

Although many aspect of Special Education can be confusing, the concept of Least Restrictive Environment can be especially confusing.  It is important to understand that Least Restrictive Environment is specific to each individual child and is a continuum of services that ensures that a child has as much access to the general curriculum and typical peers as is appropriate for that child.

NH follows IDEA, requiring

•    Each LEA shall ensure that,
•    to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private providers of special education,
•    are educated with children who do not have disabilities
•    and that, consistent with 34 CFR 300.114,
•    special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment
•    occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that
•    education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.

To determine a particular student’s Least Restrictive Environment, the IEP team must begin with a discussion of whether the students educational needs can be met in the regular education classroom fulltime.  In other words, what supports and services are necessary to allow the student to access the general curriculum?  If the team determines that supports and services will not be enough to allow the student access to the general curriculum, then the student will need to receive his or her education in another, more restrictive, setting. The starting point is the regular education classroom with no supports – but it is just the starting point.  

It is important to remember that the regular class is a starting point for discussions.  If a student’s needs can be met with appropriate supports and services in the regular class then the discussion ends.  But if the student’s needs can not be met in the regular class with appropriate supports and services, then the team must consider how much the student will be removed from the regular class and to what degree the student will not have the opportunity to be educated with children who do not have disabilities.  

Some school districts pride themselves on providing all services to all students within the regular education setting.  These school districts have spent much time and energy making sure that the instruction is differentiated and that the supports and services come to the student rather than the student going to the supports and services.  And while these efforts should be commended, any school district that states they cannot provide individual services because the district utilizes an Inclusion Model is not providing a continuum of placements.

The continuum of placements can be found in the New Hampshire Rules for the Education of Children with Disabilities.