The Board of Education (“Board”) of the North Colonie Central School District (“District”) recognizes its responsibility to ensure that students with disabilities eligible for special education programs and services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Article 89 of the New York Education Law receive those services in the least restrictive environment appropriate to meet their individual educational needs.
Therefore, the District will not place students with disabilities in special classes or separate schools, or otherwise remove them from the regular educational environment unless the nature or severity of their disability is such that their education cannot be achieved satisfactorily in regular classes, even with the use of supplementary aids and services. In addition, the District will provide special services or programs to enable students with disabilities to be involved in and progress in the general curriculum, to the extent appropriate to their needs.
To fulfill its responsibility to educate students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, the District will implement the provisions of section 200.6 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. In cases where parents and the Committee on Special Education (“CSE”) concur, combinations of defined placements may be considered to provide appropriate innovative program design.
Furthermore, and pursuant to those provisions, students with disabilities placed together for purposes of receiving special education will be grouped by similarity of individual needs including their range of academic achievement, functional performance and learning characteristics; social and physical development, and management needs.
The District will establish a process for ensuring that the CSE or CSE subcommittee Chairperson, as appropriate, obtains an up-to-date copy of those provisions at the beginning of each school year, and copies of any amendments that become effective during the school year.
The Board also recognizes that the least restrictive environment requirements established by applicable law and regulations also extend to nonacademic settings. Therefore, the District will provide students with disabilities the opportunity to participate with non-disabled students in school-sponsored cocurricular and extracurricular activities, to the maximum extent appropriate to each individual student’s needs. The District also will provide students with disabilities with supplementary aids and services the CSE or CSE subcommittee, as applicable, determines to be appropriate and necessary for the students to participate in such activities.
Ref: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 20 USC §§1400 et seq.
8 NYCRR §§ 200.2(b)(4); 200.6
Adopted: October 24, 2011