How concerned should we be if the federal mandates of least restrictive environments (LRE) for students with diagnosed disabilities are being met? What overall impact will this have on general education classrooms? The answers both these questions should be VERY CONCERNED.
Let’s first identify what LRE is and why how it impacts ALL classrooms for those who don’t know. LRE is one of the six major requirements that came out of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004). The impact is that these federal laws and regulations require that al U.S schools to include students who have disabilities the right to be educated in general education classroom as much as it is possible.
Keep in mind that the term “inclusion” means that general education classrooms have the possibility of receiving students with varying disabilities that can range from mild to severe. The primary problem is not the inclusion of children who have diagnosed disabilities – the real issue is that most U.S. school systems have not as of yet found sustainable ways to ensure that general education teachers are prepared, thereby qualified, to provide basic support for ALL students, especially those who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as well as other disabilities.
Please read the article below to access more details about the scope of the problem and possible solutions…
Barriers general education teachers face regarding the inclusion of students with autism by Mohammed Al Jaffal
Published online by Frontiers in Psychology. 2022 Aug 22. doi:
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