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Oberti vs Board of Education of the Borough of Clementon School District
995 F. 2d 1204 (New Jersey, 1993)

__Facts__: (P) Rafael Oberti, an 8 yr old boy with Down’s syndrome, and his co-plaintiff parents Carlos and Jeanne Oberti, objected to removing Rafael from the regular classroom setting after he spent a year being in a regular developmental kindergarten class half time and in a special education class half time at his home school. (D) Clementon School District, including the IEP team, proposed placing Rafael in a full-time program in an out-of-district school for multiply handicapped children. While Rafael had made some academic and social progress in the regular kindergarten class, he had a number of serious behavioral problems that disrupted the class: repeated toileting accidents, temper tantrums, hitting and spitting on other children, and on several occasions, striking the teacher and teacher’s aide.

__Issues / Answers__: Is the district making reasonable efforts to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) providing a free appropriate public education in a least restrictive environment? No.

__Basis / Rationale__: The Court of Appeals concluded that the district had violated the IDEA in that school systems are required to supplement and realign their resources to move beyond those systems, structures and practices which tend to result in unnecessary segregation of children with disabilities. The law does //not// require states to offer //the same// educational experience to a child with disabilities as is generally provided for nondisabled children, but they must meet the special needs of a disabled child, recognizing that that child may benefit differently from education in the regular classroom than other students. The fact that a child with disabilities will learn differently from his or her education in a regular classroom does not justify exclusion from that environment. The federal judge who decided the case endorsed full inclusion stating, "Inclusion is a right, not a special privilege for a select few".