POLICY LETTER: November 4, 2003 to New Jersey Department of Education Director of Special Education Barbara Gantwerk

Dated November 4, 2003Mrs. Barbara GantwerkDirectorOffice of Special Education ProgramsNew Jersey Department of EducationP.O. Box 500Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0500Dear Mrs. Gantwerk:This letter is in response to your electronic correspondence with questions and concerns regarding parental choice and the least restrictive environment (LRE) provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In your letter, you note that children are sometimes placed in segregated schools for children with disabilities based on an agreement between parents and the other participants in the group of persons making the placement decision that a free appropriate public education can best be provided in a private school. You ask whether this type of parent agreed-to placement will be viewed favorably by the Department as an example of parent choice and whether the Department will continue to look at data on rates of placements in segregated settings (whether parent agreed-to or not) as a State factor warranting further monitoring inquiry by the Department. The Department of Education fully supports the IDEA and the LRE provisions in the statute and its implementing regulations (20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(5); 34 C.F.R. 300.550-300.556). The LRE provisions provide that to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities are to be educated with children who are not disabled and that special classes, separate schooling or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. The placement decision must be based on the child's individual needs as identified in the child's individualized education program (IEP), and unless the IEP requires some other arrangement, the child must be educated in the school that he or she would attend if not disabled (34 C.F.R. 300.552). However, the IDEA also requires that each public agency have available a continuum of alternative placements to meet the individual needs of children with disabilities. Thus, under the IDEA, for those children with disabilities who need such a placement, segregated private schools are the least restrictive environment appropriate to their needs. Public agencies can only offer parents choice about the type of placement consistent with the LRE requirements.The Office of Special Education P/s/Robert H. Pasternack, Ph.D.Page PAGE 2 - Ms. Barbara Gantwerk