Inclusion: The process by which disabled students are educated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate.

Did you know that New Jersey ranks 49th out of 50 states in inclusive practices? Or that less than one month after the assessment service which performed Katie's first Child Study Team evaluation recommended placing her in a non-inclusive preschool without an IEP, the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) audited their program and cited numerous violations of IDEA, including placement in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)? Or that Katie was originally assigned a general cognitive index of 106 and the county preschool disabled program was prepared to offer her a curriculum geared to that level? One wonders how a four year old whose communication skills are impaired can reveal her true cognitive potential. 

In Katie's case we had obtained an evaluation privately, before requesting services from the local school district, so we knew quite a bit about her needs before entering the special education maze. Not every child is as fortunate. Do you ever wonder what any one of them might have contributed to the common good had their needs been appropriately served? 

LRE placement is the Law for preschoolers, too, and there is no valid excuse for any school district to place a preschooler in a more restrictive environment than his needs indicate. If you are a parent of a preschooler and you have heard statements such as "Well, this is all we have available" or "We have to stay within the district," then you are probably about to hear a placement recommendation based on convenience for the district and not based on your child's needs. 

If a Child Study Team declares a preschool age child "eligible for classification as preschool handicapped" (this is the only classification for preschoolers in NJ), the Team is, in effect, notifying the school district in which that child resides that the child needs a preschool program. Our personal experience, coupled with the results of an impromptu poll we have taken, has convinced us that preschoolers are more likely to be placed in overly restrictive settings than any other segment of the special needs population. 

How does it happen? A parent requests the evaluation, which is usually completed rather promptly. The Child Study Team has two options when dealing with a preschooler in New Jersey. It can either declare the child eligible for classification as preschool handicapped, or not. Assuming the child is declared eligible, the Team is supposed to schedule a meeting to develop an IEP for the child. The parent is supposed to be a member of the IEP Team, whose opinions are given as much weight as those of any other member. Recommendations for school placement and specific services which will be offered to the child are are to be made based only on the completed IEP. This is how the system works in theory.

In reality, the process is quite different. Preschoolers who are evaluated by Child Study Teams and found eligible for classification are usually offered one and only one option. Their parents can either agree to place them in the district's preschool handicapped program, where they will have no opportunity to interact with their non-disabled peers, or their parents will be given the distinct impression that their school districts cannot and will not offer them any services at all.

In most of the cases with which we are familiar, including our own, the recommendation for placement (meaning, the self-contained classroom) was made before the meeting to develop the child's IEP was scheduled. This practice violates the legal requirement that placement decisions are to be based solely on the IEP. How is it possible to fulfill this requirement if the IEP is not yet in existence? 

This page is intended to provide information about both Federal and New Jersey Special Education Law. Please feel free to send me an e-mail with your comments or questions.

See the New Jersey State Department of Education's position on Least Restrictive Environments for preschoolers. 

The link above will take you to a letter written by the NJDSE in its efforts to correct one of the more serious areas of non-compliance noted by OSEP when it visited New Jersey during the week of June 8, 1998. The full report on New Jersey as well as other states is available online and can be viewed in PDF format by following the link below.

See what the federal Office of Special Education Programs thinks of your state.

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