Parent Night: Least Restrictive Environment and Extended School Year Kennett Consolidated School District January 17, 2017

Agenda What is the Least Restrictive Environment and Extended School Year? What does the law say about LRE and ESY? What is the school team’s role in LRE and ESY? What is a parent's role in LRE and ESY?

Least Restrictive Environment The Pennsylvania Department of Education is committed to the Federal and State regulations and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, and Chapter 14 of the Pennsylvania School Code regarding educating students with special needs in the least restrictive environment, or LRE. PDE's goal is that IEP teams consider placement of every child in the general education setting with his peers without disabilities before any non-inclusive separate educational setting.

Least Restrictive Environment This is what the IDEA 2004 requires: that to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are non-disabled. Second, that special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if 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. This requirement has been part of disability education law for nearly 40 years and is often referred to as the least restrictive environment.

Least Restrictive Environment All schools are required to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to all students receiving Special Education services What does that mean to you as a parent? Your child should have the same opportunities to learn his or her age and grade level materials with the necessary supports that he or she needs to learn those materials in a setting that most closely meets his or her needs provided by public funds. FAPE is an individualized educational program that is designed to meet the child's unique needs and from which the child receives educational benefit and prepares him for further education, employment and independent living.

Principles about FAPE One: a free and appropriate public education, or FAPE, must be provided to every student with an IEP. Moreover, FAPE must be delivered in the LRE as per the IEP team. Two: students will not be removed from regular education classrooms merely because of the severity of their disabilities. Three: when students with disabilities, including students with significant cognitive disabilities, need specially designed instruction or other supplementary aids and services to benefit from participating in regular education classrooms as required in their IEP, local education agencies are obliged to ensure that those services are provided.

Principles about FAPE Four: IEP teams must determine whether the goals in the student's IEP can be implemented in regular education classrooms with supplementary aids and services before considering removal from the regular educational classroom. And school districts will consider the full range of supplementary aids and services in regular education classrooms based on peer reviewed research to the extent practicable, including modification of curriculum content, before contemplating placement in a more restrictive setting. It is the "with appropriate supplementary aids and services" piece which may allow your child to thrive in a general education setting versus a more secluded one.

FAPE and the law School Districts can always do more than IDEA, but they can't do less. The Pennsylvania Department of Education is responsible for making sure IDEA, as well as its own regulations under Chapters 14 and 711, are followed. It is your child's local educational agency, or LEA, who is ultimately responsible for making sure the federal IDEA regulations, state regulations, its local IU policies, as well as its own policies and procedures, are strictly adhered to.

Least Restrictive Environment As a valued member of your child's IEP team, you should feel empowered to participate in the LRE portion of his or her IEP. Know your rights and your child's rights. Give ideas of how you think your child can participate successfully in the general education setting based on your experience at home, in the community

LRE Questions Here is the key question for IEP teams with regard to the least restrictive environment. What can be done to allow a child to remain in the general classroom and receive specially-designed instruction by adapting the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction to ensure access to the general education curriculum? Each section of the IEP provides invaluable information that supports opportunities for conversation around access, participation, and progress in the general education curriculum and educational environment. Supplementary aids and services are a compilation of specially designed instruction, or SDI, and related services to support a student in the general education environment, and they need to be considered.

Least Restrictive Environment You may feel that your child will absolutely benefit from being included in the general education setting, or you may feel you absolutely do not want her in the general educational setting with typically developing peers, or you may be somewhere between these two absolutes. Your role is to your child to fully participate with his or her team in determining the setting in which he or she will be the most successful while following the LRE guidelines.

Least Restrictive Environment Your child has the same right as every other child to have access to the general education curriculum. This is the course of study that each child in the State of Pennsylvania receives, guided by the standards approved by the Department of Education, regardless of where this curriculum is delivered. Because your child has an IEP, he or she receives specially-designed instruction and possibly accommodations or modifications to this curriculum. Your son or daughter may be fully included

Least Restrictive Environment The team, by law and with your help, needs to decide which of the choice of settings is most appropriate and will give your child the best chance of academic and social success. This decision should also be fluid. It can be changed according to your child's changing needs. When making decisions about educational placement for your child, you and your child's IEP team want to make the decision based on accurate data.

IEP Questions Educational Placement Questions for IEP Team What supplementary aids and services were considered? What supplementary aids and services were rejected? Explain why the supplementary aids and services will or will not enable the  student to make progress on the goals and objectives (if applicable in this IEP)  in the general education class. What benefits are provided in the general education class with  supplementary aids and services versus the benefits provided in the special education class?

IEP Questions Questions for IEP Team What potentially beneficial effects and/or harmful effects might be  expected on the student with disa bilities or the other students in the class, even with supplementary aids and services? To what extent, if any, will the student participate with nondisabled peers in extracurricular activities or  other nonacademic activities?

Extended School Year Timeline For purposes of ESY eligibility determination, the IEP review meeting is to occur no later than February 28 of each school year for these students. Notice of the team’s determination (NOREP) is to be issued to the parent no later than March 31 of the school year. These time lines offer a way to comply with guidance in the federal regulations that states that public agencies should make determination of need in a timely manner so that a student with a disability who requires ESV services in order to receive FAPE can obtain the necessary services. An eligibility determination would be considered timely if there were sufficient time for the parent to appeal a denial of ESY services before the break in services occurs.

Extended School YEar Timeline ESY determinations for students who are not from a “target group” are not subject to the above time lines, but must still be made as soon as possible in accordance with the time lines in Chapter 14.1fthe parents of those non-target group students disagree with the LEA’s recommendation, the parents will be afforded due process. In considering the need for ESY services, the IEP team may decide to postpone a decision until a later date. In such circumstances, the LEA must ensure that the team reconvenes within a timely manner, as above.

Extended School Year What is the ESY decision based on? The IEP team makes its decision about providing ESY services by looking at information about the student’s performance that has been gathered all year. Some of this information measures student achievement before and after breaks from school. The team can also gather information from teachers’ and parents’ observations of the student’s behavior and skills before and after breaks. Medical or other agency reports can also be accessed. 

Extended School Year What is the ESY decision based on? Questions to Consider Will the student move to a lower level of functioning in skills or behavior because of an interruption in educational programming? Will the student take a long time to recoup (recover) the skills or behavior patterns that were lost during a break in educational programming? Will a pattern of difficulties with regression and recoupment make it unlikely that a student will maintain the skills and behaviors relevant to IEP goals and objectives?

Extended School Year Questions to be considered Will a lapse in services substantially reduce a student’s chances of ever learning a critical life skill or behavior related to the IEP? Is the student at a crucial stage in mastering a life skill that is related to the IEP goals of self- sufficiency and independence from caregivers? Does the student have a severe disability such as autism/pervasive developmental disorder, a serious emotional disturbance, severe intellectual disability, degenerative impairments with mental involvement, or severe multiple disabilities? No one factor, however, can be used to determine eligibility for ESY services.

Extended School Year Which Services will be provided during ESY? The IEP team will determine which services and how much of these services will be provided during the extended school year. The team may decide that the student will continue all the services received during the regular school year, or it may decide that the student will only receive a portion of services or one specific service. This decision is based on the needs of each student.

Extended School Year Where will the services be provided? The IEP team determines where ESY will be provided. It can be provided at many different places, like in school or at a job site. It is always provided in the least restrictive environment (LRE) that is appropriate for the student. This means that the student with disabilities is placed in a situation that allows opportunities to be with students who are not disabled. However, the school district, IU, or charter school is not required to assemble nondisabled students just to make the ESY environment less restrictive. ESY services can be provided in a non-educational setting if the IEP team determines that the student can receive appropriate ESY services in that setting. It is the goal of KCSD to provided services that most resemble those received during the school year in order to minimize transitions and ensure maintenance of skills

Extended School Year If parents and the school entity do not agree about ESY services and cannot resolve their differences in the IEP meeting, a notice (NOREP/PWN) will be sent to the parents explaining the IEP team’s decision. If parents still disagree, they can ask for another IEP meeting, request free mediation services, or request a due process hearing. Another IEP meeting will likely involve the attendance of the Supervisor or Director of Special Education. If the parent requests mediation or a due process hearing, the pendency provisions of state and federal law apply, and there should be no change in ESY eligibility or program, unless agreed to by the parties, pending completion of due process proceedings.

LRE and ESY Resources KCSD website PATTAN Special Education ConsultLine- 800-879-2301 (V/TTY)

Questions Parking Lot Contact IEP case manager Contact building Principal Contact Supervisor or Director of Special Education