COMPONENTS OF IDEA 1

Components of IDEA

Emma M. McInerney

SPED 100

Sandi Steinhoff-Mueller

15 April 2015

South Dakota State University

Author Note

Emma McInerney, Education Department, South Dakota State University

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Emma McInernery, Education

Department, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD

Contact: emma.mcinerney@jacks.sdstate.edu
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Abstract

Individual Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has affected students, parents, and

educators ever since Congress passed IDEA in 1975. IDEA has six principals zero rejection, free

appropriate public education (FAPE), least restrictive environment (LRE), nondiscriminatory

evaluation, parent participation and shared decision making, and procedural safeguards. Zero

rejection allows all students with disabilities to attend public schools. While FAPE provides

students with disabilities the opportunity to attend school and have access to tools that help them

become academically successful for free. LRE is the requirement that students with disabilities

attend general education classrooms with accommodations in place. LRE allows students with

disabilities to interact with other students. Nondiscriminatory evaluation states that no evaluation

or decision should be made due to a child’s ethnicity, religion, or language. Parent participation

and shared decision making explains that parents and the student on an Individualized Evaluation

Program (IEP) will know, and be a part of the decision making process for a student’s IEP.

Finally, procedural safeguards protects is the legal portion of IDEA. It clarifies procedures that

schools should be taking to protect their students with disabilities.

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The individual disabilities education act (IDEA), previously known as Public Law 94-

142, was passed in 1975. IDEA consists of six principles: principals zero rejection, free

appropriate public education (FAPE), least restrictive environment (LRE), nondiscriminatory

evaluation, parent participation and shared decision making, and procedural safeguards. “IDEA

has empowered a generation of teachers, parents and students to reach for endless opportunities

of learning,” acknowledges Marcus Walton (U.S. Department of Education). This act has

changed the education system for students, parents, and educators for the better.

The first principle, zero rejection, is explained by Exceptional Children as “no child with

disabilities may be excluded from a free public education” (16). In summary, this principal

states that all children, no matter what disability they may have, cannot be legally turned away

from a public school system..

The next principal, FAPE, can relate to the zero rejection principal. FAPE is granted to

“all children with disabilities, regardless of the type or severity of their disability” (Exceptional

Students 16). To explain a little, more any student with a disability must be provided free

education even if that means it will be an expense for the school. Each student that is in special

education has an individualized education program (IEP). An IEP is created by a group of

educators called an IEP team. This team typically consists of the student’s special education

teacher, classroom teacher, and any other educator in the school that will benefit the student’s

success. IEPs are created to decide what educational path is best for the student and any other

accommodation that the student may need to make them successful. Once the IEP team has

decided on the education path the school must provide any accommodations and equipment or

personnel for the student to become most successful. This may even mean re locating schools for
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a child to become academically successful. This then connects zero rejection, FAPE, and LRE all

together.

Principal number three, LRE, is best explained as “IDEA [requirement]…to educate

students with disabilities with children without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate”

(Exceptional Students 16). Principally, a child with disabilities cannot remain in the special

education classroom all day unless that is educationally appropriate. William L. Heward carries

on explaining the IDEA requirement, “that students with disabilities be removed to separate

classes or schools only when the nature or severity of their disabilities is such that they cannot

receive an appropriate education in a general education classroom with supplementary aids”

(16). This quote states that if a child is able to obtain an appropriate education in a general

classroom with accommodations, then the student should be in the general classroom with the

accommodations. However, if the student does not receive the proper education the IEP team

reserves the right to either place the student in the special education classroom for more

assistance, or relocate to a school with more assistance than the original school can provide. A

school may not always be the best fit for a student’s educational needs, and in that case the child

can be relocated to a more appropriate school. Like stated earlier once a student is relocated the

home school district must pay for this child’s transportation and tuition for the new school. The

LRE principal allows students to interact with peers while still in a general classroom setting ,

and gain an appropriate education.

These principles have affected educators, parents, and students positively. The author

references two schools as an example to show the positive effects for all three participants. South

Sioux City, Nebraska has six elementary schools; however there are two schools that offer more

advance special education programs. Harney Elementary School offers a behavior disorder
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program. Cardinal Elementary School offers Autism Spectrum Disorder program and Self-

contained Severe and Profound program. In all of these programs students come from the tri-

state area because they provide a LRE for the students. This has a positive effect on the students

because they are receiving the education created specifically to the student’s educational needs.

In each of these classrooms they have highly trained educators that have spent hours working

with the previous school’s educators to gain full knowledge of the student. The students also are

surrounded by other students that face similar experiences daily. The students bond with these

other students. The parents are positively affected because their child can attend a school that

offers a program that’s adjusted specifically for the child with no out of pocket cost, thanks to

FAPE. The parents also see a new school placement as a fresh start for the child. As for

educators from the outside this may seem like extra work because students that do not live in the

school district are being added to the teacher’s case load. However, the students that are

relocated have tried working within their home school, but the students need the extra help that

the other school’s program offers. As for the positive outlook that teacher can work with students

with disabilities that he or she is specifically trained in rather than working with students with

disabilities that he or she is not fully qualified for. The zero rejection, FAPE, and LRE principles

offer new positive opportunities to students, parents, and educators.

The next principle, nondiscriminatory evaluation states that “schools must use nonbiased

multi-factored methods of evaluation to determine whether a child has a disability, and if so,

whether the child needs specially designed instruction to benefit from education” (Exceptional

Children 16). In essence if parents agree to an evaluation on their child, the administers of the

evaluation cannot declare that a student has a specific disability because of racially bias
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assumptions or questions. The student cannot receive an evaluation if it is not in the student’s

native language for the simple reason of the student may not fully understand the questions if it

is presented in a foreign language; this gives an unreliable test result. After the student has been

declared a student with a disability, the school must take every possible nonbiased action to

allow the student to be successful. The parents of a child with disabilities can make sure that the

school is abiding by this principal with the parent participation and shared decision making

principal .

One of the final principals is called parent participation and shared decision making. This

principal is self-explanatory, but according to Exceptional Student, “schools must collaborate

with parents and students with disabilities in the planning and implementing of special education

and related services” (20). This principal is specifically concerned with any changes that may

occur in a student’s IEP. A parent should not be excluded from their child’s education, and if a

student is old enough, to understand they are granted permission to be included in their IEP

information. Parent participation and shared decision making is a principal that legally makes a

school and IEP team include the parents and students in education decisions. If parents are not

included or feel their child has been provided with a biased evaluation, the final principal

provides them information on how to legally proceed with this information.

The final principal is procedural safeguards. The procedural safeguard principal is stated

as “schools must follow an extensive set of procedures to safeguard and protect the rights and

interest of children with disabilities and their parents” (Exceptional Students 19). This principal

is basic. Like any career, there is a step-by-step procedure that you must follow to remain legally

correct in decision making for a student’s academic success. In accordance with this principal,

you must have parental consent before evaluating or placement decisions are made on a student.
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Along with that, the principal provides the options for parents to get second evaluation for the

student at the school’s expense. Procedural safeguard also includes that if parents do take a

school district to court and triumph, then the school is required by law to reimburse the parents’

attorney fees. In response to that, the court is allowed to require the parents to reimburse the

school’s attorney fees if the court finds that the court case is unreasonable. Essentially, this

principal is based on more of the legal aspects with the school and the parents, yet it still

concerns the student and educator.

These principles mainly focus on the parent effects. However, it does affect the student

because receiving a biased evaluation will lead to invalid results the student’s education has then

become limited. Occasionally educators think that they are doing what is right for the student,

but sometimes it affects the student’s education. That is why parents and students need to be

included in a student’s IEP decisions. With a limited education, the student will fall behind in the

curriculum if no one recognizes and are proactive about it. However, if these situations were to

ever happen, procedural safeguard offers the legal process for parents to get their child’s

education back in order.

Schools with programs geared towards disabled children are effective because they give

students the ability to succeed academically with accommodations. LRE, FAPE, zero rejection

help support the student while attending school. Nondiscriminatory evaluation, parent

participation and shared participation, and procedural safeguard focuses around the legal aspect

of special education along with making sure all procedures are being completed correctly.

Overall, IDEA has had a huge impact on the education system for parents, students, and

educators.
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Reference

Department of Education. (2012). What IDEA Has Meant to Me. Washington, DC: U.S.

Government Printing Office.

Howard, William L. (Ed.10). 2013. Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special

Education .Ohio State University: Pearson.