A study of special education classroom teachers and professional support staff attitudes serving low-incidence students in the Least Restrictive Environment Process

This research investigation explored perceptions of special education classroom teachers and professional support staff on Least Restrictive Environment Process and its potential effects on instructional design for inservice training. This study addressed the perceptions special education professionals have toward change, responsibility, least restrictive environment process, and inservice training. Other issues addressed were differences in attitudes and perceptions of professional special education staff toward LRE who had differing levels of teaching experience and differing educational backgrounds.;The study incorporated a nonexperimental, descriptive research design involving professional special education staff from seven segregated facilities in the suburban areas of Wayne County. Analysis of Variance was used to investigate the research questions at the.05 level of confidence. There were 170 special education classroom teachers and professional support staff who received a survey with 122 responding.;The instruments used in this study was developed and validated for this study based upon a Singapore study. The dependent variable studied was perceptions of special education staff toward LRE. The instrument measured four subscales: change, responsibility, least restrictive environment, and inservice training. The inferential statistical techniques used addressed each research question that included oneway analysis of variance and t-tests for independent variable.;Five research questions were addressed in the descriptive study. The findings indicated generally neutral to negative attitudes of the special education classroom teachers and professional support staff to LRE. The research supports the conclusion that inservice training should be provided to the population studied to bring about attitudinal changes.;This research suggests that needs assessment is a critical part of the instructional design process and that design models for future LRE inservice training should address the specific concerns of the targeted special education classroom teachers and professional support staff in segregated facilities.