Least Restrictive Environment / Inclusion

Let’s all reach out and help our districts be inclusive - we could start a task force and ask our own school districts’ educators to be part of it. There are many who do want to help construct a fairdinkum (real) inclusive school district so that all of our neurodivergent children would be educated a long side their neurotypical peers.

But building these type of inclusive programs is not achieved by one person alone - it’s achieved by many. We need to roll up our sleeves to fight, construct and collaborate to give our current neurodivergent students and our future generations of children the education they deserve and are legally entitled to.

Let's give our children back their civil right. Let us ensure all children receive a robust educational program which includes neurotypical children with whom they can learn from whilst they are provided every modification and accommodation necessary to be successful.

We must start first with inclusion and supports and not start with a segregated program offering a de minimus educational curriculum…. too often our children who might have more needs than most and may not be able to use their voice to speak are placed in a classroom full of other non or minimal speakers (this is certainly not helpful to anyone in that setting - this setting is void of peer modeling for speech). These students are also pulled off the academic/college track to predominantly concentrate on life skills only to be presented with often kindergarten or first grade work for otherwise middle school or high school age students. Furthermore, these students were many times not properly evaluated and, when they finally are, these students are often found to be intelligent and often later reveal they understood age appropriate general education curriculum yet our districts all those years never knew!

Studies show that students classified with a disability who learn alongside their typically learning peers are happier, perform better, feel included and are more likely to gain employment in the workforce thus needing fewer benefits or no lifetime benefits than those who were removed from their Least Restrictive Environment to be placed in segregated school programs with little and certainly not appropriate general education curriculum. How would such a child receive a meaningful educational benefit from that type of program?!

And, as important, studies have shown that our neurotypical peers who are educated together with their neurodivergent peers grow up to be successful, patient and kinder members of society. Who wouldn't want that for our upcoming youngsters?!

Therefore, celebrating and encouraging our Least Restrictive Environment placements (in the true meaning of those words and abbreviation of "LRE") is a must and we should all put our heads together in our respective states and school districts to collaborate on how we can actually build on inclusion efforts so as to benefit ALL of our children in the world today and for all of those who will follow.

Inclusion in schools and extracurricular activities must be the expectation and not the exception. Not only is inclusion the law but it is the right thing to do which benefits ALL of our children whether they hold a disability classification or not!