Least Restrictive Environment Reflection

Least Restrictive Environment Reflection Name Institution Least Restrictive Environment Reflection Prior to the PARC and Mills litigation, the LRE principle never existed. However, these two cases became very instrumental in the formulation of the LRE principle. When the court rulings in the PARC case concluded that a least restrictive placement was necessary, it prompted the need for inclusion in which case children with disabilities were not isolated from their non-disabled peers, unless it was deemed necessary (Crockett, 2014). As such, these court rulings allowed deinstitutionalization of children with disabilities by issuing a presumption that they should be placed in a general classroom setting. The legal basis for the LRE principle is the Constitution. Every citizen in America has a right to equal protection under the law. One of the building blocks for the LRE is the PARC v. Commonwealth litigation in which the court concluded that the denial of “free appropriate public education in the least restrictive placement” was a violation of the right to equal protection (National Council on Disability, n.d.). Thus, under the law, LRE is considered a critical element of an appropriate and beneficial education. While Congress included the LRE as part of the basic principles of IDEA, the interpretation of this principle has been left to the courts. As such, there is some level of variation when it comes to the interpretation of LRE, as revealed by Underwood (2018). However, there are some common elements that are considered in the interp...