Opinion ID: 523168
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mainstreaming Under the EHA

Text: 25 The cornerstone of the EHA is the free appropriate public education. As a condition of receiving federal funds, states must have in effect a policy that assures all handicapped children the right to a free appropriate public education. Sec. 1412(1). The Act defines a free appropriate public education in broad, general terms without dictating substantive educational policy or mandating specific educational methods. 4 In Rowley, the Supreme Court fleshed out the Act's skeletal definition of its principal term: a 'free appropriate public education' consists of educational instruction specially designed to meet the unique needs of the handicapped child, supported by such services as are necessary to permit the child 'to benefit' from the instruction. Rowley, 458 U.S. at 188-89, 102 S.Ct. at 3042, 73 L.Ed.2d at 701. The Court's interpretation of the Act's language does not, however, add substance to the Act's vague terms; instruction specially designed to meet each student's unique needs is as imprecise a directive as the language actually found in the Act. 26 The imprecise nature of the EHA's mandate does not reflect legislative omission. Rather, it reflects two deliberate legislative decisions. Congress chose to leave the selection of educational policy and methods where they traditionally have resided--with state and local school officials. Rowley, 458 U.S. at 207, 102 S.Ct. at 3051, 73 L.Ed.2d at 712-13. In addition, Congress's goal was to bring handicapped children into the public school system and to provide them with an education tailored to meet their particular needs. Id. at 189, 102 S.Ct. at 3042, 73 L.Ed.2d at 701. Such needs span the spectrum of mental and physical handicaps, with no two children necessarily suffering the same condition or requiring the same services or education. Id. at 189, 102 S.Ct. at 3042, 73 L.Ed.2d at 701. Schools must retain significant flexibility in educational planning if they truly are to address each child's needs. A congressional mandate that dictates the substance of educational programs, policies and methods would deprive school officials of the flexibility so important to their tasks. Ultimately, the Act mandates an education for each handicapped child that is responsive to his needs, but leaves the substance and the details of that education to state and local school officials. 27 In contrast to the EHA's vague mandate for a free appropriate public education lies one very specific directive prescribing the educational environment for handicapped children. Each state must establish 28 procedures to assure that, to the maximum extent appropriate, handicapped children ... are educated with children who are not handicapped, and that special education, separate schooling or other removal of handicapped children from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the handicap is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. 29 Sec. 1412(5)(B). With this provision, Congress created a strong preference in favor of mainstreaming. Lachman v. Illinois State Board of Education, 852 F.2d 290, 295 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 308, 102 L.Ed.2d 327 (1988); A.W. v. Northwest R-1 School District, 813 F.2d 158, 162 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 144, 98 L.Ed.2d 100 (1987); Roncker v. Walter, 700 F.2d 1058, 1063 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 864, 104 S.Ct. 196, 78 L.Ed.2d 171 (1983). 30 By creating a statutory preference for mainstreaming, Congress also created a tension between two provisions of the Act. School districts must both seek to mainstream handicapped children and, at the same time, must tailor each child's educational placement and program to his special needs. Secs. 1412(1) and (5)(B). Regular classes, however, will not provide an education that accounts for each child's particular needs in every case. The nature or severity of some children's handicaps is such that only special education can address their needs. For these children, mainstreaming does not provide an education designed to meet their unique needs and, thus, does not provide a free appropriate public education. As a result, we cannot evaluate in the abstract whether a challenged placement meets the EHA's mainstreaming requirement. Rather, that laudable policy objective must be weighed in tandem with the Act's principal goal of ensuring that the public schools provide handicapped children with a free appropriate public education. Lachman, 852 F.2d at 299; Wilson v. Marana Unified School District, 735 F.2d 1178, 1183 (9th Cir.1984) (citations omitted). 31 Although Congress preferred education in the regular education environment, it also recognized that regular education is not a suitable setting for educating many handicapped children. Rowley, 458 U.S. at 181 n. 4, 102 S.Ct. at 3038 n. 4, 73 L.Ed.2d at 696 n. 4; Lachman, 852 F.2d at 295. Thus, the EHA allows school officials to remove a handicapped child from regular education or to provide special education if they cannot educate the child satisfactorily in the regular classroom. Sec. 1412(5)(B). Even when school officials can mainstream the child, they need not provide for an exclusively mainstreamed environment; the Act requires school officials to mainstream each child only to the maximum extent appropriate. Id. In short, the Act's mandate for a free appropriate public education qualifies and limits its mandate for education in the regular classroom. Schools must provide a free appropriate public education and must do so, to the maximum extent appropriate, in regular education classrooms. But when education in a regular classroom cannot meet the handicapped child's unique needs, the presumption in favor of mainstreaming is overcome and the school need not place the child in regular education. See Lachman, 852 F.2d at 295; A.W., 813 F.2d at 163; Roncker, 700 F.2d at 1063. The Act does not, however, provide any substantive standards for striking the proper balance between its requirement for mainstreaming and its mandate for a free appropriate public education. 32