The Capabilities Approach to Inclusive Education: re-envisioning the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s Least Restrictive Environment

Abstract

This article aims to produce an innovative interpretation of the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) provision in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) to secure inclusive education for children with disabilities using the capabilities approach to a theory of justice. The focus of the capabilities approach on human dignity and human diversity makes it an ideal tool for re-envisioning the LRE requirements that ensure children with disabilities are appropriately entitled to the effective freedoms and compensatory resources of equity-based inclusive education beyond mere equal access to public education. The article proposes a capabilities approach-based interpretation of the LRE provisions by providing: a social-relational model of disability that emphasizes the relational mechanism of a disability between internal and external arrangements; a holistic view that balances intrinsic and extrinsic goods of education; and a justice claim for additional educational provisions in inclusive education for children with disabilities.