High School Selection Essay

Words: 461
Pages: 2

Students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate in the same high school programs that are made available to nondisabled students. In Philadelphia, an agreement that arose out of a class action suit, widely known as the LeGare Consent Decree, required, among other things, that the School District of Philadelphia modify its high school selection to ensure that students with disabilities are not precluded from attending selective and highly desirable high schools due to disability-related characteristics and issues that prevent such students from meeting all of the admission criteria for such schools. What this means is the high school application/admission process is now more inclusive to special education students allowing for admission to the city’s top-performing high schools and magnet schools.

In general, school districts are required to provide to students with disabilities and their families: 1) timely information and guidance concerning the full range of high schools and
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Upon completion of the evaluation, the MDE team should meet well before the deadline for any applications to schools in which the student is seeking admission in order to assist the student and family to consider a range of possible schools and to identify the types of accommodations and supports the student may require to fully participate in those schools. If the team believes that a particular high school or program is the only appropriate setting for a particular student, the team has the duty to recommend that the student be placed there. The MDE report will form the basis for the student’s first year in high