Least Restrictive Environment, Metaphysics, and Students with Intellectual Disabilities

Overview & Synopsis

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) (IDEIA) requires practitioners to use educational evaluations to assess students in K-12 schools that are suspected of having a disability. The resulting data provides the basis for determining whether students qualify for special education services, their precise educational needs, and the most appropriate plan to address those needs. This process culminates in the development of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and determining the least restrictive environment (LRE) in which to implement it. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) submits an annual report to Congress detailing special education service statistics. The most recent report (2021) showed that students with intellectual disabilities (SwID) had significantly less access to general education classrooms in comparison to other student populations. Furthermore, recent empirical scholarship shows that SwID demonstrate better learning and developmental outcomes when provided greater access to general education classrooms. These points suggest that despite being designed to provide access to appropriate education services, the IDEIA seems to achieve the opposite in practice by limiting SwID to accessing educational resources that confer less educational benefit. In the article. Derek T. M. Daskalakes analysis will draw on select ontological themes in the work of American philosopher and educator John Dewey in arguing that a revised conception of the student may resolve this problem by altering criteria that IEP teams consider when determining LRE.