Foundations and Professional Responsibilities
The legal frame
IDEA rests on six principles: free appropriate public education (FAPE), appropriate evaluation, individualized education program (IEP), least restrictive environment (LRE), parent participation, and procedural safeguards. Know child find (districts must locate and evaluate children suspected of a disability), prior written notice, and informed parental consent. Section 504 is broader: any physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; it provides accommodations, not necessarily specially designed instruction. FAPE under Rowley means an IEP reasonably calculated to enable progress, not the maximum possible program.
Discipline and transition
Removals of more than 10 school days are a change of placement and require services plus a manifestation determination within 10 school days. Special circumstances (weapons, drugs, serious bodily injury) allow an interim alternative educational setting up to 45 school days. Transition planning begins by age 16 (earlier in some states) with measurable postsecondary goals.
Traps
Questions often push "full inclusion for everyone" - LRE requires considering supplementary aids and services before removal, not automatic placement. Another trap confuses 504 and IDEA eligibility or treats the IEP as a lesson plan rather than a legal document.
Worked rule
For LRE, use a presumption-plus-evidence rule: can the student make progress in general education with supplementary aids and services? If yes, that is the placement. If not, move along the continuum and document why.