Legal Issues in Education the

Legal Issues in Education The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) contains 5 major principles concerning the education of children with disabilities: zero reject; free appropriate public education (FAPE); least restricted environment (LRE); protection in evaluation; and procedural due process. Explain these principles. Originally enacted by Congress in 1975, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is an act that was to "ensure that children with disabilities have the opportunity t receive a free appropriate public education, just like other children" (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2010).

The most recent IDEA is comprised of four major parts: the general provisions, the assistance for education of all children with disabilities and, infants and toddlers with disabilities, and the national activities to improve children with disabilities (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2010). In this act, there are five major principals that embody the education of children with disabilities including zero reject, free appropriate public education (FAPE), least restricted environment (LRE), protection in evaluation, and procedural due process.

Foremost, the principal of zero reject "ensures that all children receive a free and appropriate public education, no matter how severe their disability" (Philadelphia Mental Retardation Services, 2005). Essentially, a child cannot be excluded from a public education because the school system believes the child is too disabled to learn or has inappropriate behavior due to the disability. This allows for children to have a zero chance of rejection from the public education system despite the fact of that they have a disability.

Also, the concept of free appropriate public education (FAPE) is one of the broader concepts that is explore in IDEA. FAPE is the idea "that every student with a disability has a right to an education which benefits them, meaning that they make real, not trivial progress and do not regress" and also that "an appropriate education includes specially designed instruction (special education) and related services which the students needs to make progress" (Philadelphia Mental Retardation Services, 2005).

Disabled children should have access to a free and appropriate public education that is able to tailor to their needs, including special education curriculums and teachers that are educated in teaching in this manner to these types of students. At the core of the FAPE allows for all children to have equal access to education despite disability.

Next, the concept of a least restricted environment (LRE) that the "states that children with disabilities have a right to be educated, to the maximum extent appropriate, with children without disabilities" (Philadelphia Mental Retardation Services, 2005). This concept attempts to ensure that children with disabilities are not shortchanged and not included if they can be. It seems that the concept of least restricted environment speaks to the concept of inclusion of disabled children with students that are not disabled.

Furthermore, the fourth concept that is included in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the protection evaluation. It is the right of the parents "to be notified of all evaluations and reevaluations, receive copies of all evaluations and documentation, have access to student records and to be full members of the both the team which evaluates the student and the team which develops the IEP" (Philadelphia Mental Retardation Services, 2005).

Since the children are disabled, it is possible that the children are not aware that they are being evaluated and it would not be fair for the school to act upon the evaluation if the parents were not made aware of it. The protection evaluation protects the child from unfair actions being done.

Finally, a procedural evaluation is when schools and parents are held accountable to each other, and when "parents and schools disagree, IDEA provides for them to participate in mediation and if that is unsuccessful, to have a due process hearing" and the "due process hearing is held before a disinterested person called a due process hearing officer" ultimately resulting in that "whoever loses at the due process hearing has the right to appeal their case at a higher court" (Philadelphia Mental Retardation Services, 2005).

This is an important in that it allows the child to be able to have access to the best education and it is the job of schools and parents to work together to move the child forward, but in the event that does not occur, then it is important that the child's rights are fought for and determined by a judge or jury if needed. 2. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that school districts offer a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for eligible students with disabilities.

Since the original passage of the law in 1975, the attitude of what constitutes a FAPE for students with disabilities has led to a great deal of confusion and controversy.

What is FAPE? What are the essential components of a FAPE? What is the primary vehicle by which school districts provide students with a FAPE? What guidance has litigation provided us regarding the content of a FAPE? The free appropriate public education concept or FAPE "protects the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance, including federal funds" (U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2010). According to the U.S.

Department of Education, it "requires a school district to provide a 'free appropriate public education to each qualified person with a disability who is in the school district's jurisdiction, regardless of the nature or severity of the person's disability'" (U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2010).

Individual who are entitled to FAPE include "all qualified person with disabilities within the jurisdiction of a school district" and that the person with a disability as "any person who: (i) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities, (ii) has a record of such an impairment, or (iii) is regarded as having such an impairment" (U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, 2010). Another fundamental component to understanding FAPE is to understand how appropriated education is defined.

According to the U.S.

Department of Education, "an appropriate education may comprise education in regular classes, education in regular classes with the use of related aids and services, or special education and related services in separate classrooms for all or portions of the school day" which may include "special education may include specially designed instruction in classrooms, at home, or in private or public institutions, and may be accompanied by related services such as speech therapy, occupational and physical therapy, psychological counseling, and medical diagnostic services necessary to the child's education" (U.S.

Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, 2010). Some essential components of FAPE include that education services must meet individual needs, that students with disabilities must be educated with nondisabled students, evaluation and placement decisions are made with the appropriate procedures, and recipients must have due process procedures for the review identification, evaluation and placement decisions. The primary vehicle in which school districts provide FAPE to disabled children is through the means of special education classes and hiring teachers that have specialized in teaching children who are mentally disabled.

It is important that these children are taught in a slightly different manner than nondisabled school children because of the way that they process things cognitively. It is also important to maybe have two teachers in a classroom, one that is geared towards teaching the disabled children, so that they are included in the classrooms and settings with the nondisabled children. There have been many cases that allow the boundaries and the concept of FAPE to be fully explored. For instance, in a particular case with Weissburg v.

Lancaster School District, there was a student that suffered from autism and mental retardation but, "the school district did not classify him as autistic, but granted him special education services when they did find that he suffered from mental retardation" which cause Edward's parents to sue, as they contented "that he was also entitled to special services under the autism classification" and "an administrative law judge concluded that there had been no denial of a FAPE, but that Edward was, indeed, entitled to services under the autism classification as well as under the mental retardation classification" (Links, 2010).

When litigation is brought to court, it allows the public to examine the ins and outs of FAPE- in this case FAPE was not denied, but upon first glance, it may have appeared to be. 3. One of the most contentious issues in special education involves the principle of least restricted environment (LRE). Explain the LRE principle.

What are the two major parts of the LRE principle? What is the continuum of alternative placements? Who should IEP teams determine LRE's for students with disabilities? Another major part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the principle of the least restricted environment (LRE). "The least restrictive environment (LRE) requirement is often referred to as 'mainstreaming'" (Wright and Wright, 2009).

The major parts of the LRE principle include the process of inclusion in classrooms, as well the "continuum of alternative placements." Mainstreaming entails allowing a disabled student to be integrated into the classroom with other non-disabled children and be able to learn amongst nondisabled chidren as well. In 1991, the U.S. Court of Appeals described the purpose and end goals of the mainstreaming or inclusion policy that comprises the LRE- "Under the Act, mainstreaming is a policy to be pursued so long as it is consistent with the Act's primary.