Toward the Realization of the Least Restrictive Educational Environments for Severely Handicapped Students

It is now the responsibility of educators to provide for the education of severely handicapped students in what has been referred to as “the least restrictive educational environment.” This paper discusses least restrictive educational environments in relation to segregation versus integration, interactions with nonhandicapped age peers, the ratio between handicapped and nonhandicapped students, chronologically age-appropriate educational environments, architectural barriers and prosthetized environments, “normal” organization of the school day, equal access to school facilities and resources, transportation, and ancillary services. The fundamental premise offered here is that educational service delivery models for severely handicapped students must closely approximate the best educational service delivery models used for nonhandicapped students.