Lre Least Restrictive Environment Least

LRE

Least Restrictive Environment

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) refers to a setting where a child with disability can receive education with his peers but according to his own special needs and Individual Education Plan. This allows maximum interaction with regular students while special children receives equal education according to his needs. The law in this connection clearly states:

To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities.... should be educated with children who are not disabled, and... special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment should occur 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. 20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(5)(B)

Equal education has always been an important concern of educators, legislators and the public. From the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that emphatically declared that 'separate is not equal' to the new People with Disabilities Act (1973), equal education has been a strong theme. This has led to the amendment that allows for LRE.

Historically speaking, equal education had always been stressed but was being falsely practiced. First it was the racial segregation that created differences in the access to education for whites and blacks, and then it was the special students half of whom were not received any education by 1972. It was found that there were approximately eight million children with disabilities in the United States during early 1970s. But half of them had no access to education- something that was rectified by the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and later by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However the term "mainstreaming" which is actually the cornerstone of LRE was not used or defined in these laws. It was only in 1985 that this term came to the fore and underscored the need of integration of special students with regular students in classes that were least demanding.

For over two decades now, the practice of inclusion and integration has been growing constantly and it is now firmly held that students with special needs be placed in general academic courses with regular students. This concept of inclusion is defined by Friend & Bursuck (1999) as "physical integration, placing students in the same room as their non-disabled peers; social integration, nurturing student relationships with peers and adults; and instructional integration, teaching students based on their needs and not a predetermined set of curricular standards" (p.4).