Integrating Severely Handicapped Learners

porting both integrated and nonintegrated placements as the LRE are investigated. Specifically, the extent to which recent court decisions have influenced educational concepts of the LRE for severely handicapped students is examined. The rationale for these decisions is presented and implications for special educators are discussed.Societal treatment of people with severe handicaps has improved dramatically over the past several decades. The normalization principle has emerged as a guiding philosophy for the human services and has become a catalyst for the improvement of these services. In education, the "steady trend [toward] progressive inclusion" (Reynolds & Birch, 1982, p. 27) of handicapped learners into public schools has been guided by the least restrictive environment (LRE) mandates of Congress in P.L. 94-142 and its reauthorization, P.L. 99-457. Various educators have advocated guidelines for identifying the LRE. Reynolds and Birch (1982) equated LRE with integration and define mainstreaming, its special case, by three characteristics: (a) physical space integration, (b) social integration, and (c) instructional integration. Turnbull and Turnbull (1978) provide specific criteria for determining the LRE, including (a) physical accessibility, (b) the physical presence of handicapped and nonhandicapped learners in age appropriate settings, (c) opportunities for these students to interact with one another, and (d) the dispersal of these classes throughout a school system. Perhaps the most far-reaching LRE guideline, however, was described by Gaylord-Ross and Peck (1985). In defining LRE applications for students with severe handicaps, the authors advocated an active enhancement of school settings such that environments become least restrictive. Thus Gaylor-Ross and Peck shifted the focus from "Is the student too handicapped?" to benefit from any particular setting to "Is this environment sufficiently supportive?" to achieve positive outcomes (p. 201).As educators operationalize the LRE in different ways, these efforts must be consistent with the original preference of Congress when it passed P.L. 94-142

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Integrating Severely Handicapped Learners

Cited by 5 publications

References 4 publications

Liability of Teachers in Special Education

Liability of Teachers in Special Education

Liability of Teachers in Special Education

The Schools, The Courts, And The Integration Of Students With Severe Handicaps

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