EDUCATIONAL

PLACEMENT

A Continuum of Services and Least Restrictive Environment

Cascade system of Special Education ServicesIntroduced by Evelyn Deno (1970)Formulated a Cascade system of Special

Education Services with the adaptation of Physical Education

An inverted triangle diagram used to depicit the idea of a series of downward waterfalls beginning at the Top (Level 1) top Bottom (Level 6)

Evelyn Dono

Deno’s Cascade System of Special Education Services

Children in regular classes include those “handicapped” able to get along with regular class accommodations with

or without medical or counseling supportive therapies.Regular class attendance plus supplementary instructional

services.Part-time Special Class

Full Time Special Class

Special StationsHo

mebound

Adaptation to Physical Education

Full integration in Regular PE with or without supportive therapies

Regular PE plus supplementary instructional services

Part-time adapted PE

Full Time adapted PE

Separate School PEHo

mebound

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Levels

1

2

3

4

5

6

Levels

Instruction in

hospital or do

miciled settings

“Non-educational”

service (medical and welfare care and supervision)

Today, levels 1,2 & 3 receives most attention, regardless of how severely disabled a student is.

Each level has a resource teacher (specialized in Adapted PE) used in new and creative ways.

Dual & Team-Teaching with regular and Adapted PE teachers is viewed as a model for providing supplementary instructional services

Adapted Physical Educators are also used as consultant teachers who instruct regular educators on how to assess, teach and evaluate students with disabilities.

MainstreamingPresence of supportive services helping students learn better The concept of creating the continuum of

educational services was created to help explain the philosophy and practices of mainstreaming.

The process of placing students in settings representing diff. degrees of integration, depending on the students’ needs.

Mainstreaming can only work when a wide variety of settings and support services are available.

Its goal is matching each students’ abilities with clusters of services to see where he learns best.

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

Mainstreaming was not used in law instead, Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) was used. Why? Because mainstreaming was a concept not well understood.

LRE requires two (2) decisions for every curricular subjects:1. What services are appropriate and;2. Where and How can they be taught so that

interaction with regular children is greatest. LRE is determined individually for each student. LRE varies in terms of curriculum content and

teaching style.

Situational Examples: For a student in a

wheelchair, the regular classroom during a soccer or football unit might be the most restrictive environment, whereas the same classroom during in archery or swimming unit might be less restrictive.

For students with severe emotional disturbance who needs externally imposed limits, a movement education setting might be more restrictive (permitting less learning) than a command-style follow-the-leader class.

The Regular Education Initiative The term used to describe the goal of keeping as many

students in regular education as possible. To comply with IDEA, school districts split the

placement of students among several settings and name the placement according to the location where most instruction is received.

The US Department of Education has established the following definitions: Regular Class Placement Resource Room Placement Special Class Placement

Regular Class

Placement

The student receives special education and related services for 20% of the school day or less.

Resource Room Placem

ent

The student spends from 21% to 60% of the school day with special education and related services personnel.

Special Class

Placement

The student spends 61% or more of the school day in special education.

The US Department of Education (1989) estimated that:About 27% of all special education

students are served in regular classes.About 43% are served in resource

rooms.

Thus, about 70% receive a substantial amount of their education in the integrated or regular setting.

Special monetary incentives are available to encourage administrators to comply with the regular education initiative.

Thus, when students need full or part-time separate physical education instruction, strong supportive evidence is required to obtain such placement.

Evaluation Procedures in IDEAIDEA; Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act

What is IDEA?Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act

IDEA is a piece of legislation that ensures students with a disability are provided with a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) that is tailored to their individual needs.

Six Pillars of IDEA Individualized Education

Program (IEP) Free Appropriate Public

Education Least Restrictive Environment

(LRE) Appropriate Evaluation Parent and Teacher

Participation Procedural Safeguards

Its relation to Educational Placement:IDEA has contributed to the

improvement of evaluation/assessment procedures, particularly as they pertain to placement.

Physical Educators, because of their potential role in placement decision making, should know the legal bases for evaluation. (121a532 Evaluation Procedures)

121a532;

Evaluation Procedures:State and local educational agencies shall insure, at a minimum, that:a) Tests and other evaluation materials:

1) Are provided and administered in the child's native language or other mode of communication, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so:

2) Have been validated for the specific purpose for which they are used; and

3) Are administered by trained personnel in conformance with the instructions provided by their producers;

b) Tests and other evaluation materials include those tailored to assess specific areas of educational need and not merely those which are designed to provide a single general intelligence quotient;

c) Tests are selected and administered so as best to ensure that when a test is administered to a child with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the test results accurately reflect the child's aptitude or achievement level the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the child's impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills

d) No single procedure is used as the sole criterion for determining an appropriate educational program for a child: and

e) The evaluation is made by a multidisciplinary team or group of persons, including at least c.ie teacher or other specialist with knowledge in the area of suspected disability.

f) The child is assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability, including, where appropriate, health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general Intelligence, academic performance, communicative status. and motor abilities.

The US Department of Education reports that parents lodge more complaints about the placement than any other area.

Many of these complaints are related to the evaluation procedures in decision making.

Physical Educators lack of physical education tests validated for the specific purpose of placement.