Opinion: Buffalo Public Schools’ Misunderstanding of Least Restrictive Environment

Posted on by sammyd93

When a student’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) is first created or amended, the least restrictive environment must be determined for this child to succeed based on their recent evaluations. The least restrictive environment, or LRE, requires that “…to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled.” (Least Restrictive Environment, n.d.).

The key word in this definition is the word “appropriate.” Each IEP is individualized to each child to best support their needs. This is a main component in special education. The child must always be put in the most appropriate classroom setting for their needs, and if it’s not in a general education group, then there must be justification for that. The ultimate goal is to support the child in their progress so that they can be placed in a general education classroom with supports (or none at all!), or to get as close to that as possible, again, understanding each child’s needs. Special education self-contained classrooms are designed using ratios using a child: teacher: teacher assistant format. For example, some standard ratios you may see are 6:1:1, 8:1:1, or 12:1:1. The amount of teacher assistants may change, but it is important that ratios remain in their limits to best support the students. It’s also important for administration to understand this as well.

Right before the Labor Day weekend, The Buffalo News broke out a story stating that the Buffalo Public Schools city district would be eliminating their 6:1:1 autism classrooms and would be amending IEPs to change them to 8:1:1 classrooms instead. Representatives from the district believe that this will lead to positive growth in social development for these students. Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesperson for the Buffalo Public Schools, says this change was made to “maximize resources”, yet did not specifically state that this move was made to accommodate for the lack of certified special education teachers in the district (Tsujimoto, 2023). Some students will even have to move schools within the district. Any students that absolutely require high levels of support will be referred to outside agencies within the county, but these schools have been full for many months now. Working as a SEIT in early intervention, I am very well aware that these special education spots at these agencies have been filled up since late spring/early summer. To even have a spot open up right now would be a blessing.

Parents are furious, and I can’t blame them. I spoke with families I’ve worked with in the last few years whose children have an autism spectrum disorder and they have expressed their anger and disappointment with the district. One mother is requesting an 1:1 aide for her daughter because of the change in classroom ratio, as her child has high levels of energy and sensory needs. Another mother has said that families are preparing to attend the next board meeting to express themselves.

Unfortunately, these changes reflect the district’s misunderstanding of LRE. By completely eliminating the most restrictive environment to “maximize resources”, they have chosen to set these children with high support needs up for failure. One study found that it was the amount of students in a special education classroom that impacted children with an autism spectrum disorder over the number of staff in the classroom (Lushin et al., 2020). Having more children in a classroom setting created more negative behaviors because of external stimulations, such as noise and movement. This same study also showed that having more students in a special education classroom decreased the amount of spontaneous incidental teaching that could occur at the 1:1 level, where a child leads a staff member in an activity, and that staff member embeds strategies into this moment naturally (Lushin et al., 2020). Thus, this also leads to staff members naturally not being able to spend enough individualized attention on each student, especially with an increase in negative behaviors.

In my personal opinion, I think this was a bad move. While the superintendent recognizes that this plan could have been rolled out better (Tsujimoto, 2023), she also hopes that these students have a good school year starting this Friday the 8th (I also think this is a bit silly). I also hope that these students have a good school year, but I can’t ignore the facts and the situation at hand. If it’s truly a staffing issue, maybe the state’s new All Grades teaching certificate will help fill positions (New Students With Disabilities (All Grades) Certificate Created, 2022). No matter what, I will be interested to see how this school year goes and if any changes will be made next school year.

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