Least Restrictive Environment?

I choose not to believe that. I choose to consider Least Restrictive Environment to be an individual placement based on the needs of the student. It is my belief that a child with an Individualized Education Plan should be placed in the environment which meets his or her needs not his test scores.

Let me tell you about a child who was placed in the public school. This young man could not function in the public school. Unfortunately, we could not change his placement until it was too late.

This young man had been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Hyperactivity. His hyperactivity was controlled through his diet. However, his OCD was not controlled. This boy was obsessed with everything. He was totally mainstreamed in classes. When all of his stresses and obsessions were in order he could function at the 11th grade level. For this reason the "experts" felt that he should be mainstreamed.

The boy would sit at his desk, aligning his pencil with the grain of the wood. The binder of his book and the spiral of his notebooks were an obsession for him.

The straps on the back of his backpack had to be exact. If anyone touched him he needed to immediately go to the bathroom and wash. His hands were raw and bleeding from the soap and the water he used on them.

He focused on the tick of the clock in the room, and always knew the time. He became enraged if the desks were out of order in the classroom.

He was on many medications, including ritalin and his metabolism was not doing well with the meds. He was losing a lot of weight. His pants were hanging off of him. He had severe headaches from the meds and he had difficulty getting up in the morning for school. He could not get to school on time because he needed to eat breakfast 1 hour after waking on the dot!

His mother was extremely stressed and more so because his health seemed to be failing so badly.

She spoke with the doctors and learned holistic medications and began to remove the meds for her son on her own. When the school authorities heard about her removing her son from his medication, they sent Division of Child and Youth Services to her door. It was a terrible situation. The mother had to fight to be allowed to remove her son from meds and had to begin homeschooling him to do it.

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