Participation with Students without Disabilities
For preschool students, the IEP must provide an explanation of the extent, if any, to which the student will not participate in appropriate activities with age-appropriate nondisabled peers and must indicate if the special education services will be provided in a setting with no regular contact with age-appropriate peers without disabilities.
Removal from the general educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that even with the use of supplementary aids and services, education cannot be satisfactorily achieved.
Participation in General Education Classes
The IEP must provide an explanation of the extent, if any, to which a student will not participate in regular class and/or extracurricular and other nonacademic activities with nondisabled peers.
If a student will not participate in a regular physical education program, the IEP must indicate the extent to which the student will participate in specially-designed instruction in physical education, including adapted physical education.
Language other than English (LOTE) Requirements
The IEP must indicate if a student identified as having a disability which adversely affects the ability to learn a language will be exempt from the language other than English requirement (LOTE). It is important that the CSE, parents and students carefully consider the implications that a LOTE exemption may have on students achieving their postsecondary goals when planning their courses of study. For students seeking to go on to college, courses in LOTE are often required for admission. If a student who had been receiving special education services is declassified while in grades 9 through 12, and the student’s last IEP prior to declassification indicated that the student be exempted from the LOTE requirements, this exemption will continue upon declassification. For further information, refer to http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/lote/documents/lote-qa.pdf (288 KB) .