Opinion ID: 705962
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Continuum of Alternative Placements

Text: 16 The school district relied in part on the reports of Lionel's educational history in Idaho to conclude that further mainstreaming would not benefit Lionel educationally. The Poolaws contend that this violates the IDEA because that Act requires each school to implement its own programs to mainstream a child to the maximum extent appropriate before deciding to place him in a special education classroom. The Poolaws correctly point out that the IDEA requires school officials to ensure that a continuum of alternative placements is available to meet the needs of children with disabilities for special education and related services. 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.551(a). The Poolaws argue that Parker's reliance on the Idaho reports was improper because, in effect, Parker only considered the residential placement option rather than a number of alternative programs that could be implemented at Parker. We find these contentions to be unpersuasive. 17 The district court concluded that the IDEA does not necessarily require a school district actually to implement supplemental services before choosing an alternative to mainstreaming. We agree with this conclusion. The IDEA requires schools to give serious consideration to including handicapped children in the regular classroom. See, e.g., Oberti v. Board of Educ. of the Borough of Clementon Sch. Dist., 995 F.2d 1204, 1216 (3d Cir.1993); Daniel R.R., 874 F.2d at 1048 (holding that the Act does not permit states to make mere token gestures to accommodate handicapped students). The term serious consideration, however, does not mean that a state educational agency must necessarily implement its own alternative placements in every case. 18 A school district may, without running afoul of the IDEA, rely upon the reports of another school district when developing its own IEP for a handicapped child as long as the information relied upon is still relevant. In this case, there is no indication that the procedures used by the Plummer School District in Idaho violated the IDEA. Further, the reports covered Lionel's educational progress continuously from 1988 through the end of the 1991-92 school year. The Parker School District in Arizona relied upon these reports to assist in developing its own IEP for the 1992-93 school year. There was no evidence that Lionel's situation had changed in the few months following the last Idaho report and the date Lionel sought enrollment in the Parker School District. 19 Considering the programs instituted by other school districts and the fruits of those programs allows a state educational agency to make an informed evaluation of the likelihood of success of mainstreaming when developing its own IEP for a handicapped child. Nothing in the IDEA requires a state to repeat a course of action that will not result in educational benefit to the handicapped child. Therefore, we conclude that the Parker School District's reliance on the Idaho IEPs and reports to assist in developing its own IEP for Lionel was permissible under the IDEA. 20 As previously noted, the IDEA requires school officials to ensure that a continuum of alternative placements is available to meet the needs of children with disabilities for special education and related services. 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.551(a). The record indicates that the Plummer School District in Idaho complied with this requirement. Plummer offered a variety of supplemental aids and services, coupled with varying degrees of placement in the regular classroom to mainstream Lionel to the maximum extent appropriate. These services included access to resource rooms, individual and group instruction, a full-time interpreter, and weekly instruction in American Sign Language (ASL). No combination of these supplemental aids and services resulted in significant improvement in Lionel's academic and communicative skills. We hold that the Parker School District properly relied on the various IEPs provided by the Plummer School District in Idaho and the alternative placements provided by that school district. Because the record indicates that the Plummer School District provided an adequate continuum of alternative placements and that the Idaho IEPs and reports were considered by Arthur Sirianni in making his recommendation for the Parker School District, we conclude that this procedural requirement of the IDEA has been met. 21