The California Department of Education (CDE), Special Education Division, in conjunction with WestEd, has established a Web site for the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Resources Project at http://lre2010.weebly.com/index.html. This project provides resources to assist in the implementation of Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment for students with disabilities. It provides training, specialized materials, videos, research-based articles and other resources to CDE consultants, hearing officers, teachers, parents, administrators and interested individuals.

The LRE Resources Project addresses the State Performance Plan (SPP), Indicator 5, that identifies the percent of time that children with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) are educated in the regular education classroom, are removed from the regular classroom, and are served in separate schools, residential facilities, or homebound/hospital placements.

Direct comments to Kathleen Halvorson at khalvorson@cde.ca.gov or 916-319-0756.