Daniel R. R. v Board of Education
Daniel R.R. v. State Board of Education
To what extent is a disabled child given the right to a mainstreamed education? This question is answered here. The facts here are relatively simple. A child with Downs Syndrome was placed in a half-day Early Childhood class, with children who had similar abilities (although Daniel was of kindergarten age, his developmental age was much lower.) His parents wanted him to spend the other half of the day in a regular kindergarten, with kids his age. It became immediately apparent that this was a poor placement for Daniel. He needed almost one on one attention from the teacher, who was then unable to meet the needs of the rest of the class. Additionally, the teacher would have needed to modify almost the entire curriculum to get it to a level that Daniel could comprehend. This was an attempt to place Daniel in the least restrictive environment, or LRE. This case went as far as the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, before it finally ended, in favor of the district. While the court understood the parents’ desire to see their son in class with typical, non-disabled children, the court found evidence that there was no educational benefit in keeping Daniel in a class where he was not able to achieve academic growth (Looney 94-101).
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