Natural Environments
Key Principles and Beliefs
- Early intervention should be a family-centered process that
ensures young children with disabilities and their families receive
early intervention services and supports as part of their daily
routines and activities.
- A child's parents and other family members are usually the
primary individuals supporting and nurturing the child's growth,
development and learning. New skills are best learned from the
adults and children involved in the child's daily life. It's
about helping children develop and practice skills in settings
where they live, learn, and play throughout the day.
- Children and families participate in a variety of community
activities that are natural for them including those that occur in
their home. If the family does not want services in their home,
other community settings are identified where the child's needs can
be addressed.
- Family supports are individualized and based upon each
family's daily activities and routines as well as their
strengths, resources, and needs.
- Settings that are not "natural settings" include
clinics, hospitals, therapists' offices, rehabilitation centers,
and segregated group settings. This includes any settings designed
to serve children based on categories or disabilities or selected
for the convenience of service providers.
- The IFSP team collectively makes the decision about where
the services within the daily activities and routines of the child
and family are provided. No individual member of the team may
unilaterally determine the setting for service delivery. The
preferences of one team member cannot be considered acceptable
justification for not providing services in natural settings. Every
effort is made to select a setting that the entire IFSP team agrees
upon, including the parent supports.
- Justification for providing services in a setting outside of
a natural environment is required. This includes sufficient
documentation to support the IFSP team's decision that the child's
outcome(s) could not be met in natural settings even with
supplementary supports. This justification includes how the
services provided in a specialized setting will be generalized into
the child's daily activities and routines. It also includes a plan
with timelines and the supports necessary to return to early
intervention within daily activities and routines, as soon as
possible.
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Federal IDEA Part C Regulations
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Nebraska Title 92 NAC 51 (Rule 51)
Natural Environments Birth - 3
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The following are the relevant sections related to natural
environments from the IDEA Part C regulations at 34 CFR Part
303:
- "To the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of the child,
early intervention services must be provided in natural
environments, including the home and community settings in which
children without disabilities participate." (34CFR 303.12(b))
- Each state participating in IDEA, Part C must establish and
implement "policies and procedures to ensure that-
(1) To the maximum extent appropriate, early intervention
services are provided in natural environments; and
(2) The provision of early intervention services for any infant
or toddler occurs in a setting other than a natural environment
only if early intervention cannot be achieved satisfactorily for
the infant or toddler in a natural environment." 34CFR
303.167(c)
- Natural environments means settings that are natural or normal
for the child's age peers who have no disabilities." 34CFR
303.18
- Each IFSP must include a statement of "the natural
environments, as described in §303.12(b), and §303.18 in
which early intervention services will be provided, and a
justification of the extent, if any, to which the services will not
be provided in a natural environment;" 34 CFR 303.344(d)(ii)
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- "Natural environments means settings that are natural or normal
for the child's age peers who have no disability" 51-003.38
- The natural environments in which early intervention services
will be provided, including a justification of the extent, if any,
to which the services will not be provided in a natural
environment. 51-007.10B4b
- The provision of early intervention services for any infant or
toddler may occur in a setting other than a natural environment
only if early intervention cannot be achieved satisfactorily for
the infant or toddler in a natural environment. 51-008.03B
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Nebraska Title 92 NAC51 (Rule 51)
Least Restrictive Environment (LER) Requirements Age 3-21
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- The school district shall establish policies and procedures to
assure that, to the maximum extent appropriate, children with
disabilities including children in public or nonpublic schools and
approved service agencies are educated with children who are not
disabled, and that special classes, separate schooling, or other
removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational
environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the
disability is such that education in regular classes with the use
of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved
satisfactorily. 51-008.01
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Related Sites
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