Components of Special and Inclusive

Education
SIX PRINCIPLES OF SPECIAL EDUCATION
1. Zero reject
2. Nondiscriminatory evaluation
3. Appropriate education
4. Least restrictive environment
5. Parent and student participation
6. Procedural due process
 ZERO REJECT
• Rule against excluding any student
• Cannot exclude no matter how severe the disability
• Cannot expel students whose behavior is a
manifestation of their disability
 ZERO REJECT
• Cannot exclude children who have contagious
diseases from education with other students unless
there is a high risk that the contagious student will
infect other students
• Also a zero reject law for adults with disabilities --
Americans with Disabilities Act, (ADA), enacted in
1990
 NONDISCRIMINATORY EVALUATION
• Rule requiring schools to evaluate students fairly to
determine if they have a disability and, if so, what
kind and how extensive a disability they have
• Requires state and local agencies to evaluate
students in such a way that strengths and
weaknesses are revealed
 NONDISCRIMINATORY EVALUATION
• There is a history of discrimination -- often non-
English speaking students were administered English
language tests
• These tests did not reveal the student’s strengths
but instead showed that the student had major
deficits
• In addition, the tests administered were normed on
white middle-class students
 NONDISCRIMINATORY EVALUATION
• These tests are inappropriate for students from
impoverished socioeconomic backgrounds or who
were from a different cultural background
• Purpose of nondiscriminatory evaluation -- to
determine if a student has a disability and that the
student needs special education and related services
 NONDISCRIMINATORY EVALUATION
• Three steps in evaluating a student
– Screening
– Prereferral
– Referral
• Last step -- IDEA’s nondiscriminatory evaluation
procedures -- all tests used must be reliable and valid
 NONDISCRIMINATORY EVALUATION
• Given the disproportionate number of students from
minority backgrounds in special education, it is
extremely important during preferral to distinguish
between cultural and language differences and
learning problems
 NONDISCRIMINATORY EVALUATION
• FACT -- once students are identified about 98% are
likely to remain in special education for their entire
academic career!
• A teacher’s decision to refer should be based ONLY
on the student’s needs -- not on the teacher’s
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
• Rule requiring schools to provide individually
tailored education for each student based on the
evaluation and augmented by related or
supplementary services
• Key is individualization
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
• The IEP must
– be reviewed periodically, but not less than annually, to
determine whether the annual goals for the child are
being met
– must include present levels of educational performance,
including how the disability affects the child’s
involvement and progress in the general curriculum
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
– For preschool children, the IEP must include how the
disability affects the child’s participation in appropriate
activities
– A statement of measurable annual goals, including
benchmarks or short-term objectives, related to meeting
the child’s needs that result from the child’s disability to
enable the child to be involved in and progress in the
general curriculum
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
– Statement of special education and related services and
supplementary services to be provided to the child
– Explanation of the extent, if any, to which the child will
not participate with nondisabled children in the regular
class
– Statement of modifications in the administration of State
or district-wide assessments of student achievement
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
– Statement of the program modifications or supports that
will be provided for the child to advance appropriately
toward attaining the annual goals, to be involved in and
progress in the general curriculum and extracurricular
and other nonacademic activities and to be educated and
participate with other children with disabilities and
nondisabled children
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
– If the IEP team determines that the child will not
participate in a State or district-wide assessment, there
must be a statement of why that assessment is not
appropriate and how the child will be assessed
– Projected date for beginning of the services and
modifications
– The anticipated frequency, location and duration of
services and modifications
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
– Statement of how child’s progress toward annual goals
will be measured
– Statement of how parents will be regularly informed at
least as often as parents are informed of their
nondisabled children’s progress of
• their child’s progress toward annual goals
• extent to which progress is sufficient to enable the child to
achieve the goals by the end of the year
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
• Don’t need parent consent for an IEP -- except at
initial placement ARD
• Parents must be invited to participate in the process
• Short-term objectives or benchmarks must include
the condition under which the behavior will occur,
behavioral description, and criterion or level of
mastery
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
• IEP must specify kind of assessment and evaluation
schedule
• Two other I plans --
– Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) - for children
with disabilities birth through two
– Individual Transition Plan (ITP) – coordinated set of
transition activities must be addressed by 16th birthday
and annually at ARD
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
• Supreme Court decisions regarding appropriate
education --
– Amy Rowley was entitled to an education that benefits
her, not to one that develops her to the maximum
potential
– Ambur Tatro was entitled to clean intermittent
cathetherization as a related service
 LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
• Rule requiring schools to educate students with
disabilities with nondisabled students to the
maximum extent appropriate
• One of the most important and controversial
elements of special education reform
• School may not remove student from general
education unless he/she cannot be educated
successfully there
 LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
• Reasons for LRE
– Supreme Court created the principle as a matter of
constitutional law
– There is a long history of segregation
– There is evidence that many students with disabilities can
be educated effectively in general ed classes
LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
– Any kind of segregation in education (especially when
minority students were too often misclassified into
special education) simply runs against the grain of the
U.S. Constitution, which seeks to treat all people equally
– Continuum of services -- schools must offer a range of
services from less to more restrictive
LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
– LRE has been very difficult for courts to interpret --
people disagree about its meaning
– In early years, courts generally concluded that the greater
or more extensive the student’s disability and the need
for academic or rehabilitative services, the more separate
and less inclusive the student’s education should be
LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
– More recent cases have taken into account social and
physical inclusion
– Daniel R.R. vs. State Board of Education, 1989
• Very important case from Texas
• Required schools to furnish supplementary aids and services to
make curriculum adjustments for the student before removing
him/her to more special, less inclusive program
LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
– Neighborhood schools -- many parents and advocates
want students with disabilities to be educated in their
neighborhood schools
– Clearly, the trend is toward inclusion
 LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
• Inclusion -- not the law -- LRE is the law
• Basic components of inclusion --
– All students attend school where they would attend if
they did not have a disability
– Proportion of students with and without disabilities in
general classroom is the same as in the school district
– Age and grade appropriate placement
LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
– Zero reject philosophy for general classroom
– Intensified support services available for general
education
– Cooperative learning and peer tutoring emphasized
– Goal -- student is a member of the class -- not a visitor
 LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
• Inclusion:
– Focuses on abilities and possibilities -- NOT on disabilities
and limitations
– Is a daily, ongoing process -- NOT just mainstreaming for
art, lunch, music and PE
– Is characterized by gentleness, individualization,
openness and humor -- it is NOT rigid, regimented or
authoritarian
LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
– Is solution oriented -- it is about discovering what is
possible -- NOT placing the blame, getting stuck or giving
up
– Means no one is rejected or locked out -- everyone has
different skills, talents and gifts to offer
 LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
• Essentials for inclusive schools -
– Curriculum adaptation
– Instructional strategies like cooperative learning and peer
instruction
– Redeployment of staff
– Collaboration among teachers
– Professional development
– Use of trained paraprofessionals
 PARENT AND STUDENT PARTICIPATION
• Rule requiring schools to collaborate with parents
and adolescent students in designing and carrying
out special education programs
• Parent participation was strengthened in IDEA
Reauthorization 1997
 PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS
• Provides safeguards for students against schools’
actions, including a right to sue in court
• Key aspects of due process
– Opportunity to examine records
– Participation in meetings
– Parent involvement in placement decisions
– Independent educational evaluation
 PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS
– Prior notice
– Parent consent
– Mediation
– Impartial due process hearing
– Surrogate parent
– Procedural safeguards notice
 PARENT CONSENT
• Parent’s give consent three different times:
– Initial consent for assessment
– Initial consent for placement in special education
– Reevaluation
END