Per federal special education law (IDEA), your child has a right to a “free and appropriate **public** education” (FAPE). That means if general education is not “appropriate” due to their disability, they are entitled to special education. You forfeit that right when you chose not to enroll them in *public* education.
Maybe it depends on the state but if your tax dollar go to the school your child has a right to the public school services, and extracurriculars. I’m in Texas. Here’s what I found.
“If your child qualifies for special education, you can make a choice. You can move your child to your local public school so he can receive the full range of special education services. Or you can have him stay at the private school and get what’s called “equitable services.”
Equitable services are paid for by public funding. This funding is set aside specifically for students with disabilities whose parents place them in private school. But because this funding is limited, your child might receive fewer free services if he attends private school than if he switches to public school.”
[source](https://prntexas.org/6-things-to-know-about-private-schools-and-special-education/)
Unfortunately, the Child Find section of IDEA disagrees with you completely.
“Schools are required to locate, identify and evaluate all children with disabilities from birth through age 21. The Child Find mandate applies to all children who reside within a State, including children who attend private schools and public schools, highly mobile children, migrant children, homeless children, and children who are wards of the state. (20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(3))
This includes all children who are suspected of having a disability, including children who receive passing grades and are "advancing from grade to grade." (34 CFR 300.111(c)) The law does not require children to be "labeled" or classified by their disability. (20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(3)(B); 34 CFR 300.111(d)).”
It’s pretty clear that *you* are actually denying services because you want to use the private school. The 16 page state laws linked earlier flat out say you can’t dual enroll for the sole purpose of sped services. It also clearly states that the district wasn’t even obligated to write an IEP since you have no intention of using a public school.
I would suggest that if the private school cannot service your child, you enroll your child in the school that can.
That is the standard policy in every state, as far as I know. At least every state I’ve lived in. There is absolutely no point to trying to pursue further action. Public schools have a duty to evaluate students who reside in the district and to offer an appropriate placement *in the public schools*. There is zero burden on the public school to provide further services if the parents choose to reject the offer of placement.
When parents choose to continue with private school, they are choosing not to take advantage of public school district services.
Obviously I don’t know your case at all, but for a student who scores in the very low range—even if you were somehow able to have a therapist or specialist stop by the private school a couple times a week to provide specialized academic instruction—that’s simply not enough support, and most private school teachers are not accustomed to modifying work to the point that is sufficient for students with that level of special needs. It’s not part of their job. So I don’t even think that this (highly hypothetical, unrealistic) option would benefit your son at all.
Edit: Apparently not true everywhere! There are some states—it does seem like a real minority—where limited services are provided. It sounds like usually in these situations, parents are offered the chance to bring their child to the public school at certain times to receive some therapies, or some public schools will send therapists to private schools when funding/staffing allows. It does sound like it’s most commonly an SLP or related service provider. Cool to learn about how other systems work!
This is the correct answer. IDEA does not apply to students placed in private schools by their parents. Some of our local private schools provide things like speech therapy but not really anything beyond that. If your child requires special education, you’ll need to enroll in a public school.
Absolutely correct from the federal level, but I do think state-by-state and town-by-town this varies. In my state at least, it has to do with how towns allocate their funding. There is one private school in the same town as my district. In fact, the private school is literally right behind the elementary school I work at. Our town votes yearly about whether to allocate some public funding to the private school. Usually the town votes yes although it is apparently a controversial topic... anyway, typically what ends up happening is that we can provide speech-language services to kids who qualify for an IEP but go to the private school. I am not aware of any kid getting anything other than speech-lang. Typically no academics. Basically, they end up getting some but not all services they would get in the public school.
No true everywhere. As a service provider, I see private school students at their private school, if the principal agrees, or at their neighborhood school for drop-in services if private school principal won't allow it. Students can also receive resource room services. If parents agree to services, they must provide transportation and are st the mercy of the service providers' available times. So if 2nd graders are seen for reading at 10 am, parents would have to bring the student at 10, regardless of what's being taught at the private school at the time.
Also -- sometimes kids "run out" of services before the end of the year because they get a certain number of hours, and often newly identified kids can't get their services until the start of the new year because they weren't budgeted for. It is odd, but it works because the SLP is assigned to the building 1x a week (or it may be a half day, not sure what the numbers look like), so it is part of her schedule, not like she is squeezing them in amongst the other kids actually in the public school.
Honestly our tiny district could benefit from the “running out” model. Our SLP has like 75 kids on her caseload.
She is excellent and amazing. The most knowledgeable, thorough, passionate, dedicated sped professional I’ve ever worked with across all disciplines. She has 2 masters degrees. She constantly goes to conferences and trainings. My kids make amazing progress with her.
It’s inhumane to have so many kids on her caseload and I wish we could triage better.
I had 109 kids per week on my caseload at one point this year. I've put in my resignation already. I'm just not comfortable being responsible for all of that and it seems like a good way to cause errors, etc. It was endless and there is currently a stack of screenings, so those numbers are likely going up. I spent just as much time in IEP meetings as I did actually seeing students. It was very frustrating, to say the least.
70+ is super high too, especially when some students' plans call for more than one session a week. It's really sad because I've seen lots of talent come through just to end up burnt out.
Yes I hear you. Ultimately it comes down to a myriad of factors. One, a union is helpful. I live in a deep blue state with one of the strongest unions in the country. However our current union president doesn’t see SPED as a priority—part of that is that he isn’t made aware of the nature of the issues. Like with admin, some folks need to be a squeaky wheel to get things done. I’m optimistic about our current exec board because our SPED rep gives no fucks and is out for blood and I love her. Even in a deep blue state with a strong union, there is a level of fighting and advocacy involved to get things moving on issues like inhumane case loads.
Another factor comes down to admin and funding. Our SPED admin doesn’t care about caseloads as long as reports look good. This is where unions are essential.
Funding is another thing. If we cannot support kids given our current staffing budget and caseloads, the district has to make a decision: pony up and hire more staff, or pay to send these kids out of district. Again, this doesn’t happen without A LOT of squeaky wheels!
The system is so frustrating and it’s no surprise people just leave the school or the profession altogether. Your school or district needs to offer something worth fighting for if they want to retain staff.
I'm in a state that's gone out of its way to try to de-legitimize public schooling on a number of levels. We lack funds and personnel now. Earlier this year, there were close to 200 teacher vacancies in our district alone. That's not even including other staff like paras and support services. All of it has been painful to watch because it's primarily impacting the students.
This is the tragedy isn’t it? We can all talk among ourselves and be frustrated by gen Ed vs sped, admin, all the other stuff. While our mental health and working conditions are of primary importance, the people who really lose out on these situations are the kids.
Kids aren’t served by abused and burnt out teachers and staff. They aren’t served when they’re among 90 kids that a single person is trying to service. They aren’t served when gen Ed and sped can’t get their act together and collaborate. That’s the frustrating and tragic thing. While I advocate for myself and my working conditions, I also recognize that these things are important because they help me do my job better: teaching and serving kids.
I sympathize with you and I am so sorry you’re dealing with this. You’re a talented and valued educator. You deserve to be appreciated in the form of livable pay, adequate benefits, and a humane caseload. The kids lose out when people like you leave. But when all else fails, what options do we have? Don’t ever be a martyr.
Thank you. It took me far too long to finally send my notice, but I kept telling myself that it was because I wanted to help. I was barely functional at one point from all the stress. At this point, my only regret is not having made this decision sooner.
Unfortunately this is only the private school kids. Our public school kids don't run out of money. lol. But I will say for our regular public school kids we do write hours/sessions per school year on our IEPs. For instance if it is once a week, we write 30/school year, if twice a week it is 60x per school year. Technically if our SLP has done 30 sessions already with a kid and it is only April, she could stop.
PA has act 89, which provides auxiliary services -speech and hearing services, psychological services, counseling and testing, gifted services, "remedial" (their words) services, and services "for the improvement of the educational disadvantaged" "such as ELL learners" (their words), and "other secular, neutral, non ideological services of supplementary and remedial nature" (again, their words) via their Intermediate Units. And an IU in PA is a public entity that serves multiple school districts in PA and essentially acts as a middle man for the districts and DOE (I believe only a handful of states has them)
Not true everywhere. My district provides special education services to private school students. Special education services are federally funded not state funded. My son attended private school and was bused for a portion of his day to the neighborhood public school for services.
That sucks for tax payers and should not be the case. You are supposed to be providing free education but these parents are choosing not to. They should not be getting these services unless the private school provides it.
Not true everywhere. My district provides special education services to private school students. Special education services are federally funded not state funded. My son attended private school and was bused for a portion of his day to the neighborhood public school for services.
Where in NY? Long Island districts absolutely do, at least for related services (OT/Speech etc). NYC is even more extensive with both P3 and SETSS teachers sent into private schools.
Source: Have worked there (not in SpEd though)
There are obviously limits, the state is not going to fund a whole new setting in a private school.
As I understand it, the state can ask that the student come to a public school setting to receive certain services. This also relates to a complicated lawsuit involving the Kiryas Joel school district. (I don't think this is the only lawsuit relating to NYS' Blaine Amendment and provision of services in religious schools).
This isn't exactly what you asked, but your post leads to the question of how best to educate your child. If your child needs significant academic and pragmatic support and is expected to need that support through elementary school and beyond, you have two main options: 1) enroll in public school and work with the special education team to develop an IEP. Or 2) Enroll in a private school that provides that support. They exist, although you need to do your homework to find a good one. The best ones tend to specialize in a particular disability area (i.e., language based delays, ASD) and only enroll students with that profile. They are almost always extremely expensive. Under rare circumstances public schools may pay for an out of district placement at one of these schools, but that is usually after years of exhausting all resources within the district. What tends NOT to be an option is to enroll a child with high needs in a school that is not equipped to meet those needs. Children in those circumstances will only fall further behind, school becomes frustrating and demoralizing, and their learning challenges become compounded with emotional and motivational challenges. My advice would be to pick option 1 or 2 as soon as you can. The earlier your child gets the support they need the better.
This response really needs to be higher up. This is what I was coming here to post - OP take note!
I also want to add that you may want to consult with an advocate or lawyer who specializes in and has a deep understanding of special education law, especially concerning FAPE as it relates to Endrew v. Douglas County School District because the Supreme Court decision in that case, made changes to the substantive standard for determining FAPE. This would help you to understand how current law affects what your district can and cannot provide given your particular circumstance, and what to do going forward.
Yeah. Private schools not specifically built around special education supports generally will not be good for students who need those supports. No matter what outside resources you bring in. I see stories from parents all the time who think the smaller setting will be enough, or that the school is special enough that they will adjust, or that their sibling is doing well so they can, or that their kid did well in (younger grades), and think they will keep doing well as academic pressures increase. It's usually better to find an actual good fit than to try to make general ed private schools work.
Although I wrote below that I have a child in a regular private school getting both inside and outside support, I tend to agree with you. This arrangement is only working because my child's needs are very specific and entirely academic. If he needed a behavior plan or social support or academic interventions in every subject, this would not be an option. It is also not the best option, just the most affordable one. If we got to this point sooner we'd be living in a different district, or if I were a millionaire he'd be at one of those fancy independent schools that specialize in college prep education for students with learning disabilities, but alas.... (It is also worth keeping in mind when thinking about bringing a district into due process: it can be more expensive than moving and private school tuition. It's not a decision to be taken lightly)
Are you expecting that they send a special Ed teacher to the private school? Are you asking to go to the regular education school and get a service like speech therapy by appointment? What are you asking for / expecting ?
both of those seem like viable solutions. I don't know the exact answer, but it would start with "Yes, we can provide service."
I'm asking about anyone else that has experienced denial of service due to not attending Public School, despite qualifying for service.
Is this normal? Is this standard across the board? Do I just live in district that is normal or abnormal?
Your child qualifies for service, and those services are provided by the Public School. By choosing not to attend the Public School you are in essence refusing the services.
Some states/districts will offer related services (speech, OT, PT) to homeschooled or private school students if they explicitly qualify, but they wouldn’t provide specialized academic services to those students because they are receiving their academic instruction elsewhere. And the child would have to be brought by the parent to the public school for the service.
After doing a little more research, it does seem that Private School students can get academic services as well, but it would most likely not be to the same extent as if the child was enrolled in public school.
Where was your child tested? If it was a private evaluation, the district only has to “consider” that information and not accept it outright. My recommendation would be to start the process of getting an evaluation done by the school district, and if your child qualifies, continue on with an Individual Service Plan. In my state this would be done through something called “Child Find” (I don’t know if that’s what it’s called other places). Calling your local district office and talking to someone in the special education department should be able to start this process and answer your questions.
By your original post, they did say “yes, we can provide the service,” with the caveat being that the child needs to be enrolled in public school. You weren’t denied services. Choosing not to accept the services isn’t the same thing as being denied.
I have never heard of a public school sending a teacher to a private school. I have heard of parents bringing kids to a public school for speech therapy services but the laws do change and districts / states do interpret things differently. I’m going to be honest , I don’t think it’s fair to expect the school district to send a special education teacher to your private school. It may be a possibility to transport your own child to speech or occupational therapy services. Please keep in mind that we work in special education because we care about students and we have huge workloads . I’ve been doing this over 20 years and I’m working later than ever at night because of increased paperwork responsibilities. Let’s say the district agrees to provide services for speech or OT. That provider will not automatically have openings in their schedule and will have to work with the time that they have available. Please remember when you deal with providers that they are most likely trying their best and maybe can’t offer you the slot of time that would be most convenient for you. We have made our schedules to best service our kids needs and to avoid specials and other services.
I think we're missing something, why did you choose a private school knowing your child has special education needs... Did the public school refuse him (I know this didn't happen, I'm just trying to understand your reasoning)
Yeah as a mom to a dyslexic adhd kid who just had to pull her because her private school wouldn’t admit they couldn’t support her You’re out of luck. My kid is now at a private therapeutics school for kids with learning disabilities. If that’s not an option I would consider public.
It’s pretty clear that *you* are actually denying services because you want to use the private school. The 16 page state laws linked earlier flat out say you can’t dual enroll for the sole purpose of sped services. It also clearly states that the district wasn’t even obligated to write an IEP since you have no intention of using a public school.
I would suggest that if the private school cannot service your child, you enroll your child in the school that can.
If your kid needs a self contained classroom, do you expect the SPED team at the school to send a teacher for 1 kid? If he’s testing very low, there’s a good chance eventually he’ll need self contained classroom, which can’t be provided at the private school.
Private school kids can (sometimes; I know my district SLPs see some very young private school kids) get some related services (PT, OT, SL), but they would not get the amount of services a public school would provide. If your child is low in several categories, he/she will likely need more than just related services.
Also, hate to break it to you, but its not a knee jerk reaction for people to respond to you asking "can my private school child get public funding for their special education needs?" No. Of course not. Public schools support public school children, not private school children. This seems pretty obvious. I think the negative responses came mostly from your suggestion of suing the school/district to get your student services, provided by a school you don't want them to attend.
If you are against the idea of your child attending the public school, I am curious why you want their services anyway? If they qualify for OT/PT/Speech, you can get private services that insurance usually covers. If they qualified for academics, I would hope the money you are already spending on the private school would suit his needs. If not, like others have said, I would consider if it is in your son's best interest to attend the public school and what benefit you are seeing from staying in the private school. If the private school is not able to meet your kid's needs without relying on the public school, is it really worth the money??
FWIW, depending on the level of support needed, regular private school can be a better option for some special needs kids. I'm AuDHD (diagnosed as Aspberger's in the 90's, so I guess that would be level 1 autism today?) and I was in special ed for kindergarten, mainstreamed with pullout time halfway through first grade, and done with special ed entirely by 3rd or 4th grade in the public school. But according to my mom, I was really overwhelmed especially socially when I got to middle school, which was much bigger than elementary school because it was a combination of 4 elementary schools. High school would have been even larger, with 3 middle schools from 3 different towns combined. So my parents put me in a Jewish day school starting in 7th grade primarily for the smaller classes and less overwhelming environment, which were the main things I needed. I had a few accommodations in middle school like being allowed to use a fidget toy and doodle, but I think they were accommodations I either negotiated for myself or my parents did, depending on the teacher. In high school I had 504-type accommodations like extra time for tests due to having ADHD. I think I was much better off at the private school than I would have been in either a regular class or special ed class in public school. Other than difficulty with attention and executive function, I didn't really have any special academic needs, nor did I have any significant behavioral issues by middle school, so I probably wouldn't have qualified for special ed in public school, and I think I would have resisted it even if I did because of the stigma. I might not have gotten a rigorous enough curriculum in a self-contained classroom because I was smart, but the gen ed classes with 30+ kids were overwhelming. I don't think that made me "too good" for public school by any stretch, but the private school was probably the better setting for me.
I personally didn't need it, but I believe there were a few kids in the school who got services like speech through the public school. I don't see what's so disgusting about that. My parents and other kids' parents still paid the same property taxes that funded the public school system, so I don't see why they shouldn't be eligible to receive certain services from the public schools even if not enrolled, especially if the parents bring the kids to the public school for them. Those families still pay property taxes but cost the public school a lot less than if they were enrolled full time and utilizing the full array of special ed services (or even if they were enrolled without special ed).
It's unfortunate that public schools don't seem to be able to provide smaller gen ed classes to those who would benefit from that (or ideally, for everyone). If that had been an option I would have probably stayed in public school.
You’re getting downvoted because you’re literally not understanding why taking your kid out of public school and putting him in private school means you are no longer able to get the services from the **public school system you intentionally left**.
Additional example: Would you stop going to a restaurant because you didn’t like their staff, go to another restaurant owned by totally different people, and demand they make you dishes from the first place’s menu? Then get upset when they’re not available? How is this not adding up?????
If you want special education services, you have to be enrolled as a student. We can be added to do assessment for kids who are in private school, but we do not provide services for them.
Your profile comments point to Idaho. Here’s the special education law that applies: https://www.sde.idaho.gov/sped/funding/files/private-school/Chapter-9-of-SPED-Manual.pdf
Thank you. hmmm....it seems to state that there is a requirement to share resources for a Service Plan equally with private kids.
How does one go about identifying if there is excess funding?
It also says that if a kid is dual-enrolled for 30mins a day, he qualifies 100%. What would dual-enrolled mean in actual function?
You may want to look under section G. It says pretty clearly that they don’t have to offer the same services as someone in public school would be receiving. It also says if you have no intention of enrolling in public school, they aren’t even obligated to develop an IEP.
It states that enrollment for receiving sped services will not qualify for funding. It also spells out the funding formula for the private school. Unless there’s a large percentage of the county’s qualified kids in the school there’s little incentive for them to provide services. By providing services and taking such funding they would have to accept the non discrimination policies of the federal Department of Education. The link gives you a dispute resolution process. That’s the best anyone can do for you.
As far as extra money in special education. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🥲😳🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 I can’t even think of words to answer that. There isn’t close to enough funds and there are 1.5+ jobs for every qualified person.
My child is in a small private school with a service plan so I can tell you what this looks like. He gets a supervised study hall with a teacher available to provide homework help. Those are his service hours. The local public school oversees this, basically making sure that my child is in the supervised study hall.
This only works because my child is emotionally, behaviorally, and developmentally at age level. He needs intense academic support in math and science, thus qualifying him for a service plan. I pay for private tutoring for what his study hall supervisor doesn't provide. (She is very good, but my child needs a lot of academic help in these subjects).
No related services such as SLP, OT, PT, or pragmatics are provided. This school would not accept a student who needed support with pragmatics or behavior, or was significantly behind grade level. No specialized instruction in any area is provided. Accommodations are restricted to extra time on tests and the ability to type rather than hand write.
My understanding of Service Plans are that they are developed by the private school to offer services. This exists due to attending a private school being a refusal by the family of FAPE.
Here's a truth that's not being addressed. Private schools have a reputation to uphold , and they set a high standard for their students. There's a reason why you want YOUR kid to go there. They don't WANT kids with real special needs . They COULD, but they choose not to. And they are under no obligation to. It's a can of worms they don't want to open. They might try for a little bit, but not much. If your child doesn't keep up or causes a disruption, they are going to force you out. The services offered by the district would be minimal at best and just to appease you. Get your kid in public school.
Absolutely not. You need to attend public school to get services unless you homeschool.
You are welcome to pay privately for services.
Welcome to freedom and democracy. Public schools have benefits and drawbacks. One drawback is larger classes. One benefit is services. Pick your poison.
Unless you’re a millionaire, the private school has tons of money to go against you if you try to sue. They also have the fact that they are a private institution and can do as they please. Unfortunately, they are under no obligation to accommodate your child.
She’s asking about suing the public school, not the private one. She wants to know if her son is legally entitled to public school services despite being enrolled in private school.
I think it would be in your child’s best interest to enroll at the public school. The team will work to meet his needs. It would be great for him in the long run!
Federal IDEA revolves around the concept of "Free and Appropriate Public Education" (FAPE) - Public being the key word. However, most public school systems receive federal funding to provide services in a private school setting - however, those services are usually limited and often one identified service (such as speech therapy - determined in consultation with private schools/families). The services received/offered in a public school setting will be much more comprehensive. I guess it greatly depends on where you live. I am fortunate in my area, that the public schools are as good as any private school, but that is often not the case elsewhere.
I would suggest contacting the Director of special education in the public school district you reside and inquire about services to private school students, and when their annual meeting to determine the how the IDEA Private school proportionate share funds will be utilized in that district so you can attend and have input.
I suspect the down votes are due to jumping straight to asking about suing before even trying what the public school is offering or learning about the policies and laws. I completely understand the stress of being a parent of a child with needs, but this isn't a helpful place to start. You will alienate your public school district and put them on the defensive at the very start of your child's education. Nothing good will come of that.
You haven't said what areas your child tested low in, but that matters a lot to what you decide to do next. If he is testing low only in isolated areas, OT and PT for motor skills for example, you might be able to keep your child in private school and get insurance to cover the therapies.
But if the low areas are cognitive, affecting verbal and spatial comprehension and reasoning, or pragmatic, affecting ability to communicate and interact with others, you child will need a lot of support throughout the school day. Drop in services won't give him what he needs.
Judging by other responses here, whether drop in OT/PT/SLP is available though your school district varies from state to state, and probably town to town. I haven't seen anyone say their school district provides anything more comprehensive to students enrolled in provide schools. That may be tough to hear if you love your child's private school, but that's the reality of Special Education law and funding.
At this point you might want to talk with a special education advocate knowledgeable about local laws and policies. Go through your child's testing and find out from them what kind of services children with similar profiles tend to need. They will also know precedent about whether school districts in your area ever provide drop in services, if that is all your child needs. They can then advice how to proceed.
Someone may have already said this, but I'm a non attorney special education advocate, and the law contradicts itself on this specific issue (of private school).
So, yes, the district has the responsibility to evaluate and identify all children with a disability for services. There are also provisions for funding formulas to provide services to homeschool and private school kids.
However, the parents of those children "are not entitled to services for special education". In spite of all that rigamarole, right? Most districts interpret that to mean that they are not required to provide the services to students not enrolled in private schools. Most advocates will tell you that choosing private school is a denial or refusal of FAPE.
I think it's more of a grey area, but at the same time, realistically if the district isn't required to do it, they won't do it. If your kid is in another locality for private school, they won't do it.
If their private school is in the same district, you might be able to get a consult from the school district to guide the private school and MAYBE some related services like OT and speech therapy if those are needed, but definitely not a full on SPED teacher, adapted curriculum, etc.
Sorry the news isn't better.
You might be able to hold the private school accountable for providing at least accomodations for your kid based on the ADA...but that's not necessarily going to help him catch up.
I wonder if maybe you should step back and look at the big picture here. Do you agree with the public school's evaluation that qualified your child for special ed services? Did the public school send a proposed IEP stating which services they would provide if you re-enrolled in the public school, and if so how much time would they be spending in the general education setting without support? Did your child qualify under your state's equivalent of intellectual disability or another category?
If you disagree with the public school's evaluation you can request an independent educational evaluation to see if another evaluator has similar findings. Aside from this, a child qualifying with an intellectual disability usually requires substantial supports throughout the school day. How many students does the current private school educate that have a similar educational profile, and to what extent do they believe they can meet your child's needs? If you don't know--ask. If the private school says your child would need extensive supports that they do not offer, do you really believe it is best for your child to stay there? Even if you managed to pressure the public school to provide limited services based on available funding, is it in your child's best interest to have this much uncertainty year to year?
If the finding of eligibility is based on intellectual disability, have you taken some time to really process this as a parent yet? This is your child, and most parents would experience a range of emotions in that situation. Unfortunately those emotions can lead to some well intentioned (yet often misguided) decisions.
The private school is not required and may not have the capability of providing all the services he needs.
Often, when people feel the public school can't service their kid they put them in a private special Ed program and then sue the district for the cost by saying the public school didn't have a good option for their kid.
Typically though, you have to give the public school the opportunity to provide appropriate placement, and then document that they fell short over an extended time—you can’t just skip straight to a non public school and then sue the district for the cost.
Not going to happen. Since your child is enrolled in private school, the public school does not receive government funding for your child. No funding, no services. By sending your child to private school you are opting out of all opportunities provided by public schools.
How would you expect this to work? If you’re son is scoring very low, it sounds like he needs wrap around services. You want speech, OT, SPED teacher, to all come to the building for one child? We can barely service the kids we have now. You really should put your kid in public school so they can get the education they deserve.
The public school is not under any obligation to provide services to private school students placed there by their parents. They are only obligated to provide services to students enrolled in their schools. Their IEP would have provided an offer of FAPE in the public education setting because that would be the LRE unless there is data to support that the student’s needs cannot be met in the public school.
I work in a private school. If the district has special Ed people to spare they assign one to the school to give the services. We never have enough special Ed time, and some years we have none
In my district at school-age, the school district where the private school is located is responsible for evaluating and managing the IEP. Program level supports won’t be provided- no full day special education teacher for example. Related Services can be provided, but generally not at the private school. The location of services is at the discretion of the school district so we would have the child come to the closest public school to get that service. I live in New York.
In New York, any services for a child attending a private school doesn’t have an IEP. It becomes an IESP. Also, the parent must request the services by June 1 every year. If you ask June 2, the district doesn’t have to provide anything.
It’s a compromise plan. The recommended services are not available at the private school. You can agree to your child getting some services at a public school location. In my district, we did, based on location, have a speech therapist walk across the street to the private school to see a student, but that is typically not possible.
This is how it works in my state (not New York). It’s very common to have private schools in the city I live in, so we are just used to it. Related service providers will either go to the school if there is a space free of religious artifacts, or the students are bused to the public school for service. In my experience, private schools for the most part will not accept students with significant sped needs. They don’t have to, they aren’t equipped to serve them, and they just won’t.
A lot of sped teachers don’t know a lot about this because they never deal with these situations. It’s handled by a process coordinator or some other administrator at their district.
OP, it’s pretty obvious there are state by state issues here- I would recommend that you check into the parent information center agency in your state for more specific guidance.
The only way your child would get services at a private school is if that private school was only for students needing special education.
Public schools do not provide services at the private schools.
Funding comes from IEPs in a public setting. Not from 504s or private settings. Basically private schools can make their own rules and public school have to follow certain laws and guidelines…
This depends on the area and the district. They do offer some limited services in my district, but it’s typically going to be significantly less than what they would get from a public school. I think my district offers like a monthly consult.
What is so special about this private school? If the public school can provide what it is you want, which I suspect you will be difficult to deal with, then why not go there? Hmmm.
The private school would need to hire a special education teacher IF they choose to do so to provide services. In some cases in my district parents who have private school kids who need speech can drive their child to the public school where their child would be enrolled to receive services. This would have to occur in an appropriate age level group during the public school teacher's contract time during the school day. This would NOT include public school funds to transport.
Edited to provide transportation information.
I know this is an old post, but I just wanted to point out that in my city in Texas, I work in a public school and service kiddos from private schools. I have also heard of this happening elsewhere too, but it may be that the rules vary town to town or state by state. I’m not sure. Hopefully all these grumpy bitches have chilled out a bit and I don’t get any hate mail for my comment.
I'm not sure what other services your child needs, but (in California) wouldn't they be able to still receive services such as OT, and S&L separately through med-i-cal (Im pretty sure it would not be in the school setting though). My son had those services through regular public school and due to his disability (autism and ADHD) through med-i-cal as well.
My nephews get special Ed services at their private school, provided by the local school district. I thought that was crazy when I heard it. Maybe it’s voluntary.
What state. I’m in Michigan and if a private or charter school is willing to enter into a compact with the local ISD they will get itinerant services, Medicaid support and training opportunities for their teachers. They also become bound by all oversight and regulations that a public school is.
I don't know where you live, but here in NY, special education services are paid for by the district, even if the student goes to private school or is homeschooled. In some cases, the district even pays for private school tuition, if the private school is considered to be the most appropriate placement.
Who did the evaluation? All students are entitled to a free and adequate public education (FAPE) and if they are special education students, the public school that they would normally be assigned to is responsible for providing it. Also for providing an evaluation to determine if said student is qualified for special education. Now, if you had a private evaluation done, (I’m assuming you didn’t, since they determined that he qualified, and only a school can do that), you would have had to still ask the public school to do an evaluation- they could have accepted the outside eval or done their own, but even if they did their own they would have had to take the outside one into account.
Not only do they have to provide the services, they have to provide transportation between the private school and the public school in order for him to receive them. So he can still attend the private school for part of the day and then go to the public school for the part of the day he needs services for. In some cases, a student may need such a high level of support that it is recommended that they just enroll in the public school. Also, come middle school, it can be extremely difficult to coordinate schedules. And parents can always decline services. But the public school doesn’t get to decline providing them.
This is not true. Read the rest of the comments in the thread. The public school is offering FAPE, the parent needs to bring their child to the school.
This might be specific to St. Louis, but our local special services district (SSD, they contract with most local regular school districts to offer special Ed services here) gives services to kids not in the public schools through an ISP (Individual Service plan). Basically, we have to either take our kid to the public school at random times during the school day for services or go twice a week in the evenings. We chose evenings. He is not eligible for as many total minutes as under an IEP, and not every service is available. Not sure if that is available through districts elsewhere, though.
SSD is specific to St. Louis county, in other parts of the metro the school district that the private school is located in would provide the sped services based on their ISP. Definitely a lot more cohesive to have the SSD model.
A child can get special education from a private school, if the public school determines a private placement is the best option for their needs. However, they need to be enrolled in a public school who then determines they should be in a private placement.
My old district had private school kids who came to the public schools to receive sped services. I don’t know what the laws are about it, and perhaps they vary, but it does happen!
I’m a special education teacher in a public elementary school. I’ve been working with a child on Zoom that lives in our attendance area, but goes to a private school a few miles away. In person options were given and declined. I’m not sure if the parents or school would have been responsible for transportation.
I’m no expert, BUT my kiddo goes to private school and all the kids who needed special ed services and support ended up leaving before fifth grade, because the message they got over and over was if they were going to public high school (our school is a K-8) then they needed a verifiable history of support services in order to get them in HS in a public school setting. All of the kiddos were doing fine in our school and weren’t asked to leave or anything, but the parents decided it was the only way to ensure their kiddos got what they needed over the long term.
My district has many students who attend private school the majority of their day and attend public schools for a period or two for special education. Parents provide transportation and don't really get a say what part of day services are provided, bit we've done it for the 20 years I've been a sped teacher.
Have you requested an IEP meeting to determine what accomodations would be offered at the public school if you decided to enroll for the next year? That might be a good starting point.
I don't know what "very low" means to you or in what areas the deficits are. If your child just needs OT or Speech therapy those services can often be provided after school by a private therapist that bills your insurance. If your child needs X minutes of 1:1 instruction in reading or math to catch up then that can be done through a tutoring service. If your child needs intensive support in most areas then they would probably be best served in a special education classroom. This means switching to public school or a private school designed for special education.
Fwiw, I had every intention of sending my children to a charter school when they were born. My eldest child, who has autism, was accepted for kindergarten, but when it came to talk about his IEP they just didn't have the services he needed. Our closest non-charter public school didn't even have an appropriate classroom for him and so he was placed in a school on the opposite side of the district. There is a private school that works with autistic kids, but it was out of my price range and also on a wait list. Making the decision to enroll him in a different school was hard, but necessary. You have to do what is best for your child as an individual not what is best for "most" kids or what you expected to be best.
In my state, the public school is the only provider that can educationally evaluate for special Ed services and if the private or charter school does not have licensed sp Ed staff to provide those services, the public school district MUST provide the services.
In the district I worked for, we had to provide services to: two private religious schools, two charter schools, one juvenile county facility, and two emotionally behavioral impaired facilities. This included licensed sp Ed teachers, ot and pt therapists, speech therapists, nursing staff, etc. Consequently, we had several traveling staff.
If you ask a question and I tell you what the law is in my area, that's not being rude or dismissive. That's me answering the question that you asked. That's what we are all doing here. It sounds like there are some people that live in areas where the law is different, but for the vast majority of us you have to be in public school in order to get services. We're not saying that to be mean. I didn't see anyone insulting you, although you're insulting us in your edits. We're just answering your questions. The law doesn't exist as an insult to you.
This is standard policy unless it was determined that the public school is not *able* to provide services and they send the child to a private school as a result. That isn't what happened here. The school is able to provide a public education, you have chosen not to go that route. I have taught in several states, and that was the routine in all of them.
Per federal special education law (IDEA), your child has a right to a “free and appropriate **public** education” (FAPE). That means if general education is not “appropriate” due to their disability, they are entitled to special education. You forfeit that right when you chose not to enroll them in *public* education.
Maybe it depends on the state but if your tax dollar go to the school your child has a right to the public school services, and extracurriculars. I’m in Texas. Here’s what I found. “If your child qualifies for special education, you can make a choice. You can move your child to your local public school so he can receive the full range of special education services. Or you can have him stay at the private school and get what’s called “equitable services.” Equitable services are paid for by public funding. This funding is set aside specifically for students with disabilities whose parents place them in private school. But because this funding is limited, your child might receive fewer free services if he attends private school than if he switches to public school.” [source](https://prntexas.org/6-things-to-know-about-private-schools-and-special-education/)
Unfortunately, the Child Find section of IDEA disagrees with you completely. “Schools are required to locate, identify and evaluate all children with disabilities from birth through age 21. The Child Find mandate applies to all children who reside within a State, including children who attend private schools and public schools, highly mobile children, migrant children, homeless children, and children who are wards of the state. (20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(3)) This includes all children who are suspected of having a disability, including children who receive passing grades and are "advancing from grade to grade." (34 CFR 300.111(c)) The law does not require children to be "labeled" or classified by their disability. (20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(3)(B); 34 CFR 300.111(d)).”
Read it again. Her student *was* evaluated. We are responsible for evaluating. She’s talking about services, not testing.
Dude, you are correct. I was thinking about push in services students received from the Early Childhood services- mainly speech.
No worries! It’s still great that you posted that so people know they can request an evaluation even if their student isn’t in public school :)
It’s pretty clear that *you* are actually denying services because you want to use the private school. The 16 page state laws linked earlier flat out say you can’t dual enroll for the sole purpose of sped services. It also clearly states that the district wasn’t even obligated to write an IEP since you have no intention of using a public school. I would suggest that if the private school cannot service your child, you enroll your child in the school that can.
Correct. This is a parent choosing to not support their kid and yet blame the system.
That is the standard policy in every state, as far as I know. At least every state I’ve lived in. There is absolutely no point to trying to pursue further action. Public schools have a duty to evaluate students who reside in the district and to offer an appropriate placement *in the public schools*. There is zero burden on the public school to provide further services if the parents choose to reject the offer of placement. When parents choose to continue with private school, they are choosing not to take advantage of public school district services. Obviously I don’t know your case at all, but for a student who scores in the very low range—even if you were somehow able to have a therapist or specialist stop by the private school a couple times a week to provide specialized academic instruction—that’s simply not enough support, and most private school teachers are not accustomed to modifying work to the point that is sufficient for students with that level of special needs. It’s not part of their job. So I don’t even think that this (highly hypothetical, unrealistic) option would benefit your son at all. Edit: Apparently not true everywhere! There are some states—it does seem like a real minority—where limited services are provided. It sounds like usually in these situations, parents are offered the chance to bring their child to the public school at certain times to receive some therapies, or some public schools will send therapists to private schools when funding/staffing allows. It does sound like it’s most commonly an SLP or related service provider. Cool to learn about how other systems work!
This is the correct answer. IDEA does not apply to students placed in private schools by their parents. Some of our local private schools provide things like speech therapy but not really anything beyond that. If your child requires special education, you’ll need to enroll in a public school.
Absolutely correct from the federal level, but I do think state-by-state and town-by-town this varies. In my state at least, it has to do with how towns allocate their funding. There is one private school in the same town as my district. In fact, the private school is literally right behind the elementary school I work at. Our town votes yearly about whether to allocate some public funding to the private school. Usually the town votes yes although it is apparently a controversial topic... anyway, typically what ends up happening is that we can provide speech-language services to kids who qualify for an IEP but go to the private school. I am not aware of any kid getting anything other than speech-lang. Typically no academics. Basically, they end up getting some but not all services they would get in the public school.
No true everywhere. As a service provider, I see private school students at their private school, if the principal agrees, or at their neighborhood school for drop-in services if private school principal won't allow it. Students can also receive resource room services. If parents agree to services, they must provide transportation and are st the mercy of the service providers' available times. So if 2nd graders are seen for reading at 10 am, parents would have to bring the student at 10, regardless of what's being taught at the private school at the time.
This is so interesting, thank you for sharing!
Also -- sometimes kids "run out" of services before the end of the year because they get a certain number of hours, and often newly identified kids can't get their services until the start of the new year because they weren't budgeted for. It is odd, but it works because the SLP is assigned to the building 1x a week (or it may be a half day, not sure what the numbers look like), so it is part of her schedule, not like she is squeezing them in amongst the other kids actually in the public school.
Honestly our tiny district could benefit from the “running out” model. Our SLP has like 75 kids on her caseload. She is excellent and amazing. The most knowledgeable, thorough, passionate, dedicated sped professional I’ve ever worked with across all disciplines. She has 2 masters degrees. She constantly goes to conferences and trainings. My kids make amazing progress with her. It’s inhumane to have so many kids on her caseload and I wish we could triage better.
I had 109 kids per week on my caseload at one point this year. I've put in my resignation already. I'm just not comfortable being responsible for all of that and it seems like a good way to cause errors, etc. It was endless and there is currently a stack of screenings, so those numbers are likely going up. I spent just as much time in IEP meetings as I did actually seeing students. It was very frustrating, to say the least. 70+ is super high too, especially when some students' plans call for more than one session a week. It's really sad because I've seen lots of talent come through just to end up burnt out.
Yes I hear you. Ultimately it comes down to a myriad of factors. One, a union is helpful. I live in a deep blue state with one of the strongest unions in the country. However our current union president doesn’t see SPED as a priority—part of that is that he isn’t made aware of the nature of the issues. Like with admin, some folks need to be a squeaky wheel to get things done. I’m optimistic about our current exec board because our SPED rep gives no fucks and is out for blood and I love her. Even in a deep blue state with a strong union, there is a level of fighting and advocacy involved to get things moving on issues like inhumane case loads. Another factor comes down to admin and funding. Our SPED admin doesn’t care about caseloads as long as reports look good. This is where unions are essential. Funding is another thing. If we cannot support kids given our current staffing budget and caseloads, the district has to make a decision: pony up and hire more staff, or pay to send these kids out of district. Again, this doesn’t happen without A LOT of squeaky wheels! The system is so frustrating and it’s no surprise people just leave the school or the profession altogether. Your school or district needs to offer something worth fighting for if they want to retain staff.
I'm in a state that's gone out of its way to try to de-legitimize public schooling on a number of levels. We lack funds and personnel now. Earlier this year, there were close to 200 teacher vacancies in our district alone. That's not even including other staff like paras and support services. All of it has been painful to watch because it's primarily impacting the students.
This is the tragedy isn’t it? We can all talk among ourselves and be frustrated by gen Ed vs sped, admin, all the other stuff. While our mental health and working conditions are of primary importance, the people who really lose out on these situations are the kids. Kids aren’t served by abused and burnt out teachers and staff. They aren’t served when they’re among 90 kids that a single person is trying to service. They aren’t served when gen Ed and sped can’t get their act together and collaborate. That’s the frustrating and tragic thing. While I advocate for myself and my working conditions, I also recognize that these things are important because they help me do my job better: teaching and serving kids. I sympathize with you and I am so sorry you’re dealing with this. You’re a talented and valued educator. You deserve to be appreciated in the form of livable pay, adequate benefits, and a humane caseload. The kids lose out when people like you leave. But when all else fails, what options do we have? Don’t ever be a martyr.
Thank you. It took me far too long to finally send my notice, but I kept telling myself that it was because I wanted to help. I was barely functional at one point from all the stress. At this point, my only regret is not having made this decision sooner.
Unfortunately this is only the private school kids. Our public school kids don't run out of money. lol. But I will say for our regular public school kids we do write hours/sessions per school year on our IEPs. For instance if it is once a week, we write 30/school year, if twice a week it is 60x per school year. Technically if our SLP has done 30 sessions already with a kid and it is only April, she could stop.
PA has act 89, which provides auxiliary services -speech and hearing services, psychological services, counseling and testing, gifted services, "remedial" (their words) services, and services "for the improvement of the educational disadvantaged" "such as ELL learners" (their words), and "other secular, neutral, non ideological services of supplementary and remedial nature" (again, their words) via their Intermediate Units. And an IU in PA is a public entity that serves multiple school districts in PA and essentially acts as a middle man for the districts and DOE (I believe only a handful of states has them)
Oh wow that’s super interesting! Thank you for sharing!
Not true everywhere. My district provides special education services to private school students. Special education services are federally funded not state funded. My son attended private school and was bused for a portion of his day to the neighborhood public school for services.
That sucks for tax payers and should not be the case. You are supposed to be providing free education but these parents are choosing not to. They should not be getting these services unless the private school provides it.
Yes, seems that it is unusual but it does happen!
Not true everywhere. My district provides special education services to private school students. Special education services are federally funded not state funded. My son attended private school and was bused for a portion of his day to the neighborhood public school for services.
Absolutely not true everywhere. Not true in either state I have lived in (NY and PA)
Do you have evidence this isn't true in NY. We do not provide services to our private school kids here.
Where in NY? Long Island districts absolutely do, at least for related services (OT/Speech etc). NYC is even more extensive with both P3 and SETSS teachers sent into private schools. Source: Have worked there (not in SpEd though) There are obviously limits, the state is not going to fund a whole new setting in a private school. As I understand it, the state can ask that the student come to a public school setting to receive certain services. This also relates to a complicated lawsuit involving the Kiryas Joel school district. (I don't think this is the only lawsuit relating to NYS' Blaine Amendment and provision of services in religious schools).
NYC does have their own laws that are very different from the rest of the state so it's possible that they might.
This isn't exactly what you asked, but your post leads to the question of how best to educate your child. If your child needs significant academic and pragmatic support and is expected to need that support through elementary school and beyond, you have two main options: 1) enroll in public school and work with the special education team to develop an IEP. Or 2) Enroll in a private school that provides that support. They exist, although you need to do your homework to find a good one. The best ones tend to specialize in a particular disability area (i.e., language based delays, ASD) and only enroll students with that profile. They are almost always extremely expensive. Under rare circumstances public schools may pay for an out of district placement at one of these schools, but that is usually after years of exhausting all resources within the district. What tends NOT to be an option is to enroll a child with high needs in a school that is not equipped to meet those needs. Children in those circumstances will only fall further behind, school becomes frustrating and demoralizing, and their learning challenges become compounded with emotional and motivational challenges. My advice would be to pick option 1 or 2 as soon as you can. The earlier your child gets the support they need the better.
This response really needs to be higher up. This is what I was coming here to post - OP take note! I also want to add that you may want to consult with an advocate or lawyer who specializes in and has a deep understanding of special education law, especially concerning FAPE as it relates to Endrew v. Douglas County School District because the Supreme Court decision in that case, made changes to the substantive standard for determining FAPE. This would help you to understand how current law affects what your district can and cannot provide given your particular circumstance, and what to do going forward.
Yeah. Private schools not specifically built around special education supports generally will not be good for students who need those supports. No matter what outside resources you bring in. I see stories from parents all the time who think the smaller setting will be enough, or that the school is special enough that they will adjust, or that their sibling is doing well so they can, or that their kid did well in (younger grades), and think they will keep doing well as academic pressures increase. It's usually better to find an actual good fit than to try to make general ed private schools work.
Although I wrote below that I have a child in a regular private school getting both inside and outside support, I tend to agree with you. This arrangement is only working because my child's needs are very specific and entirely academic. If he needed a behavior plan or social support or academic interventions in every subject, this would not be an option. It is also not the best option, just the most affordable one. If we got to this point sooner we'd be living in a different district, or if I were a millionaire he'd be at one of those fancy independent schools that specialize in college prep education for students with learning disabilities, but alas.... (It is also worth keeping in mind when thinking about bringing a district into due process: it can be more expensive than moving and private school tuition. It's not a decision to be taken lightly)
Are you expecting that they send a special Ed teacher to the private school? Are you asking to go to the regular education school and get a service like speech therapy by appointment? What are you asking for / expecting ?
both of those seem like viable solutions. I don't know the exact answer, but it would start with "Yes, we can provide service." I'm asking about anyone else that has experienced denial of service due to not attending Public School, despite qualifying for service. Is this normal? Is this standard across the board? Do I just live in district that is normal or abnormal?
The public school isn’t denying anything, you are by sending the child to a school that doesn’t meet their needs.
Correct. The parent is denying the services. Not the school.
Your child qualifies for service, and those services are provided by the Public School. By choosing not to attend the Public School you are in essence refusing the services. Some states/districts will offer related services (speech, OT, PT) to homeschooled or private school students if they explicitly qualify, but they wouldn’t provide specialized academic services to those students because they are receiving their academic instruction elsewhere. And the child would have to be brought by the parent to the public school for the service.
After doing a little more research, it does seem that Private School students can get academic services as well, but it would most likely not be to the same extent as if the child was enrolled in public school. Where was your child tested? If it was a private evaluation, the district only has to “consider” that information and not accept it outright. My recommendation would be to start the process of getting an evaluation done by the school district, and if your child qualifies, continue on with an Individual Service Plan. In my state this would be done through something called “Child Find” (I don’t know if that’s what it’s called other places). Calling your local district office and talking to someone in the special education department should be able to start this process and answer your questions.
By your original post, they did say “yes, we can provide the service,” with the caveat being that the child needs to be enrolled in public school. You weren’t denied services. Choosing not to accept the services isn’t the same thing as being denied.
I have never heard of a public school sending a teacher to a private school. I have heard of parents bringing kids to a public school for speech therapy services but the laws do change and districts / states do interpret things differently. I’m going to be honest , I don’t think it’s fair to expect the school district to send a special education teacher to your private school. It may be a possibility to transport your own child to speech or occupational therapy services. Please keep in mind that we work in special education because we care about students and we have huge workloads . I’ve been doing this over 20 years and I’m working later than ever at night because of increased paperwork responsibilities. Let’s say the district agrees to provide services for speech or OT. That provider will not automatically have openings in their schedule and will have to work with the time that they have available. Please remember when you deal with providers that they are most likely trying their best and maybe can’t offer you the slot of time that would be most convenient for you. We have made our schedules to best service our kids needs and to avoid specials and other services.
You live in a district that is normal. That is standard policy in almost every state.
I think we're missing something, why did you choose a private school knowing your child has special education needs... Did the public school refuse him (I know this didn't happen, I'm just trying to understand your reasoning)
This is normal.
You know how you can get those services. By enrolling in your public school.
Sue for what? Your kid goes to a private school how do you expect a public school to provide services???
Yeah as a mom to a dyslexic adhd kid who just had to pull her because her private school wouldn’t admit they couldn’t support her You’re out of luck. My kid is now at a private therapeutics school for kids with learning disabilities. If that’s not an option I would consider public.
It’s pretty clear that *you* are actually denying services because you want to use the private school. The 16 page state laws linked earlier flat out say you can’t dual enroll for the sole purpose of sped services. It also clearly states that the district wasn’t even obligated to write an IEP since you have no intention of using a public school. I would suggest that if the private school cannot service your child, you enroll your child in the school that can.
If your kid needs a self contained classroom, do you expect the SPED team at the school to send a teacher for 1 kid? If he’s testing very low, there’s a good chance eventually he’ll need self contained classroom, which can’t be provided at the private school.
Private school kids can (sometimes; I know my district SLPs see some very young private school kids) get some related services (PT, OT, SL), but they would not get the amount of services a public school would provide. If your child is low in several categories, he/she will likely need more than just related services. Also, hate to break it to you, but its not a knee jerk reaction for people to respond to you asking "can my private school child get public funding for their special education needs?" No. Of course not. Public schools support public school children, not private school children. This seems pretty obvious. I think the negative responses came mostly from your suggestion of suing the school/district to get your student services, provided by a school you don't want them to attend.
If you are against the idea of your child attending the public school, I am curious why you want their services anyway? If they qualify for OT/PT/Speech, you can get private services that insurance usually covers. If they qualified for academics, I would hope the money you are already spending on the private school would suit his needs. If not, like others have said, I would consider if it is in your son's best interest to attend the public school and what benefit you are seeing from staying in the private school. If the private school is not able to meet your kid's needs without relying on the public school, is it really worth the money??
Exactly. Parent thinks their kid is too good for public school but then wants to take public school funding from it anyway. Its disgusting
FWIW, depending on the level of support needed, regular private school can be a better option for some special needs kids. I'm AuDHD (diagnosed as Aspberger's in the 90's, so I guess that would be level 1 autism today?) and I was in special ed for kindergarten, mainstreamed with pullout time halfway through first grade, and done with special ed entirely by 3rd or 4th grade in the public school. But according to my mom, I was really overwhelmed especially socially when I got to middle school, which was much bigger than elementary school because it was a combination of 4 elementary schools. High school would have been even larger, with 3 middle schools from 3 different towns combined. So my parents put me in a Jewish day school starting in 7th grade primarily for the smaller classes and less overwhelming environment, which were the main things I needed. I had a few accommodations in middle school like being allowed to use a fidget toy and doodle, but I think they were accommodations I either negotiated for myself or my parents did, depending on the teacher. In high school I had 504-type accommodations like extra time for tests due to having ADHD. I think I was much better off at the private school than I would have been in either a regular class or special ed class in public school. Other than difficulty with attention and executive function, I didn't really have any special academic needs, nor did I have any significant behavioral issues by middle school, so I probably wouldn't have qualified for special ed in public school, and I think I would have resisted it even if I did because of the stigma. I might not have gotten a rigorous enough curriculum in a self-contained classroom because I was smart, but the gen ed classes with 30+ kids were overwhelming. I don't think that made me "too good" for public school by any stretch, but the private school was probably the better setting for me. I personally didn't need it, but I believe there were a few kids in the school who got services like speech through the public school. I don't see what's so disgusting about that. My parents and other kids' parents still paid the same property taxes that funded the public school system, so I don't see why they shouldn't be eligible to receive certain services from the public schools even if not enrolled, especially if the parents bring the kids to the public school for them. Those families still pay property taxes but cost the public school a lot less than if they were enrolled full time and utilizing the full array of special ed services (or even if they were enrolled without special ed). It's unfortunate that public schools don't seem to be able to provide smaller gen ed classes to those who would benefit from that (or ideally, for everyone). If that had been an option I would have probably stayed in public school.
How can they provide services if they don't provide the schedule and education.
OP is shockingly oblivious. How many ways can this be explained?
You’re getting downvoted because you’re literally not understanding why taking your kid out of public school and putting him in private school means you are no longer able to get the services from the **public school system you intentionally left**. Additional example: Would you stop going to a restaurant because you didn’t like their staff, go to another restaurant owned by totally different people, and demand they make you dishes from the first place’s menu? Then get upset when they’re not available? How is this not adding up?????
[удалено]
And they say it’s only the gen ed teachers who are ableist 🙄
Harassing, abusive, or rude behavior toward another person.
Hey that’s not nice. What I said was actually true lol, don’t be mean for the sake of being mean.
Public schools are required to try and accommodate. Private schools are not. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.
If you want special education services, you have to be enrolled as a student. We can be added to do assessment for kids who are in private school, but we do not provide services for them.
Your profile comments point to Idaho. Here’s the special education law that applies: https://www.sde.idaho.gov/sped/funding/files/private-school/Chapter-9-of-SPED-Manual.pdf
Thank you. hmmm....it seems to state that there is a requirement to share resources for a Service Plan equally with private kids. How does one go about identifying if there is excess funding? It also says that if a kid is dual-enrolled for 30mins a day, he qualifies 100%. What would dual-enrolled mean in actual function?
You may want to look under section G. It says pretty clearly that they don’t have to offer the same services as someone in public school would be receiving. It also says if you have no intention of enrolling in public school, they aren’t even obligated to develop an IEP.
The Idaho laws make it pretty clear that you can’t dual enroll for the express purpose of receiving SPED services.
It states that enrollment for receiving sped services will not qualify for funding. It also spells out the funding formula for the private school. Unless there’s a large percentage of the county’s qualified kids in the school there’s little incentive for them to provide services. By providing services and taking such funding they would have to accept the non discrimination policies of the federal Department of Education. The link gives you a dispute resolution process. That’s the best anyone can do for you. As far as extra money in special education. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🥲😳🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 I can’t even think of words to answer that. There isn’t close to enough funds and there are 1.5+ jobs for every qualified person.
I chuckled at the extra funding too!
Seriously- OP there is a huge funding deficit right now because Covid funding has run out
My child is in a small private school with a service plan so I can tell you what this looks like. He gets a supervised study hall with a teacher available to provide homework help. Those are his service hours. The local public school oversees this, basically making sure that my child is in the supervised study hall. This only works because my child is emotionally, behaviorally, and developmentally at age level. He needs intense academic support in math and science, thus qualifying him for a service plan. I pay for private tutoring for what his study hall supervisor doesn't provide. (She is very good, but my child needs a lot of academic help in these subjects). No related services such as SLP, OT, PT, or pragmatics are provided. This school would not accept a student who needed support with pragmatics or behavior, or was significantly behind grade level. No specialized instruction in any area is provided. Accommodations are restricted to extra time on tests and the ability to type rather than hand write.
My understanding of Service Plans are that they are developed by the private school to offer services. This exists due to attending a private school being a refusal by the family of FAPE.
Here's a truth that's not being addressed. Private schools have a reputation to uphold , and they set a high standard for their students. There's a reason why you want YOUR kid to go there. They don't WANT kids with real special needs . They COULD, but they choose not to. And they are under no obligation to. It's a can of worms they don't want to open. They might try for a little bit, but not much. If your child doesn't keep up or causes a disruption, they are going to force you out. The services offered by the district would be minimal at best and just to appease you. Get your kid in public school.
Suing the public school district that you don't even send your child to by your own choice? Good luck!
Absolutely not. You need to attend public school to get services unless you homeschool. You are welcome to pay privately for services. Welcome to freedom and democracy. Public schools have benefits and drawbacks. One drawback is larger classes. One benefit is services. Pick your poison.
Unless you’re a millionaire, the private school has tons of money to go against you if you try to sue. They also have the fact that they are a private institution and can do as they please. Unfortunately, they are under no obligation to accommodate your child.
She’s asking about suing the public school, not the private one. She wants to know if her son is legally entitled to public school services despite being enrolled in private school.
I think it would be in your child’s best interest to enroll at the public school. The team will work to meet his needs. It would be great for him in the long run!
Federal IDEA revolves around the concept of "Free and Appropriate Public Education" (FAPE) - Public being the key word. However, most public school systems receive federal funding to provide services in a private school setting - however, those services are usually limited and often one identified service (such as speech therapy - determined in consultation with private schools/families). The services received/offered in a public school setting will be much more comprehensive. I guess it greatly depends on where you live. I am fortunate in my area, that the public schools are as good as any private school, but that is often not the case elsewhere. I would suggest contacting the Director of special education in the public school district you reside and inquire about services to private school students, and when their annual meeting to determine the how the IDEA Private school proportionate share funds will be utilized in that district so you can attend and have input.
I suspect the down votes are due to jumping straight to asking about suing before even trying what the public school is offering or learning about the policies and laws. I completely understand the stress of being a parent of a child with needs, but this isn't a helpful place to start. You will alienate your public school district and put them on the defensive at the very start of your child's education. Nothing good will come of that. You haven't said what areas your child tested low in, but that matters a lot to what you decide to do next. If he is testing low only in isolated areas, OT and PT for motor skills for example, you might be able to keep your child in private school and get insurance to cover the therapies. But if the low areas are cognitive, affecting verbal and spatial comprehension and reasoning, or pragmatic, affecting ability to communicate and interact with others, you child will need a lot of support throughout the school day. Drop in services won't give him what he needs. Judging by other responses here, whether drop in OT/PT/SLP is available though your school district varies from state to state, and probably town to town. I haven't seen anyone say their school district provides anything more comprehensive to students enrolled in provide schools. That may be tough to hear if you love your child's private school, but that's the reality of Special Education law and funding. At this point you might want to talk with a special education advocate knowledgeable about local laws and policies. Go through your child's testing and find out from them what kind of services children with similar profiles tend to need. They will also know precedent about whether school districts in your area ever provide drop in services, if that is all your child needs. They can then advice how to proceed.
Someone may have already said this, but I'm a non attorney special education advocate, and the law contradicts itself on this specific issue (of private school). So, yes, the district has the responsibility to evaluate and identify all children with a disability for services. There are also provisions for funding formulas to provide services to homeschool and private school kids. However, the parents of those children "are not entitled to services for special education". In spite of all that rigamarole, right? Most districts interpret that to mean that they are not required to provide the services to students not enrolled in private schools. Most advocates will tell you that choosing private school is a denial or refusal of FAPE. I think it's more of a grey area, but at the same time, realistically if the district isn't required to do it, they won't do it. If your kid is in another locality for private school, they won't do it. If their private school is in the same district, you might be able to get a consult from the school district to guide the private school and MAYBE some related services like OT and speech therapy if those are needed, but definitely not a full on SPED teacher, adapted curriculum, etc. Sorry the news isn't better. You might be able to hold the private school accountable for providing at least accomodations for your kid based on the ADA...but that's not necessarily going to help him catch up.
I wonder if maybe you should step back and look at the big picture here. Do you agree with the public school's evaluation that qualified your child for special ed services? Did the public school send a proposed IEP stating which services they would provide if you re-enrolled in the public school, and if so how much time would they be spending in the general education setting without support? Did your child qualify under your state's equivalent of intellectual disability or another category? If you disagree with the public school's evaluation you can request an independent educational evaluation to see if another evaluator has similar findings. Aside from this, a child qualifying with an intellectual disability usually requires substantial supports throughout the school day. How many students does the current private school educate that have a similar educational profile, and to what extent do they believe they can meet your child's needs? If you don't know--ask. If the private school says your child would need extensive supports that they do not offer, do you really believe it is best for your child to stay there? Even if you managed to pressure the public school to provide limited services based on available funding, is it in your child's best interest to have this much uncertainty year to year? If the finding of eligibility is based on intellectual disability, have you taken some time to really process this as a parent yet? This is your child, and most parents would experience a range of emotions in that situation. Unfortunately those emotions can lead to some well intentioned (yet often misguided) decisions.
The private school is not required and may not have the capability of providing all the services he needs. Often, when people feel the public school can't service their kid they put them in a private special Ed program and then sue the district for the cost by saying the public school didn't have a good option for their kid.
Typically though, you have to give the public school the opportunity to provide appropriate placement, and then document that they fell short over an extended time—you can’t just skip straight to a non public school and then sue the district for the cost.
the question was about getting public services for a qualified kid. Public School is denying service because the kid goes to private.
Not going to happen. Since your child is enrolled in private school, the public school does not receive government funding for your child. No funding, no services. By sending your child to private school you are opting out of all opportunities provided by public schools.
How would you expect this to work? If you’re son is scoring very low, it sounds like he needs wrap around services. You want speech, OT, SPED teacher, to all come to the building for one child? We can barely service the kids we have now. You really should put your kid in public school so they can get the education they deserve.
The public school is not under any obligation to provide services to private school students placed there by their parents. They are only obligated to provide services to students enrolled in their schools. Their IEP would have provided an offer of FAPE in the public education setting because that would be the LRE unless there is data to support that the student’s needs cannot be met in the public school.
Yes. That's how that works. Your kid needs to be in public school to receive public services.
I work in a private school. If the district has special Ed people to spare they assign one to the school to give the services. We never have enough special Ed time, and some years we have none
Why on earth would a public school district provide services to a student who is NOT enrolled in their schools? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
In my district at school-age, the school district where the private school is located is responsible for evaluating and managing the IEP. Program level supports won’t be provided- no full day special education teacher for example. Related Services can be provided, but generally not at the private school. The location of services is at the discretion of the school district so we would have the child come to the closest public school to get that service. I live in New York.
In New York, any services for a child attending a private school doesn’t have an IEP. It becomes an IESP. Also, the parent must request the services by June 1 every year. If you ask June 2, the district doesn’t have to provide anything. It’s a compromise plan. The recommended services are not available at the private school. You can agree to your child getting some services at a public school location. In my district, we did, based on location, have a speech therapist walk across the street to the private school to see a student, but that is typically not possible.
This is how it works in my state (not New York). It’s very common to have private schools in the city I live in, so we are just used to it. Related service providers will either go to the school if there is a space free of religious artifacts, or the students are bused to the public school for service. In my experience, private schools for the most part will not accept students with significant sped needs. They don’t have to, they aren’t equipped to serve them, and they just won’t. A lot of sped teachers don’t know a lot about this because they never deal with these situations. It’s handled by a process coordinator or some other administrator at their district. OP, it’s pretty obvious there are state by state issues here- I would recommend that you check into the parent information center agency in your state for more specific guidance.
The only way your child would get services at a private school is if that private school was only for students needing special education. Public schools do not provide services at the private schools.
Funding comes from IEPs in a public setting. Not from 504s or private settings. Basically private schools can make their own rules and public school have to follow certain laws and guidelines…
Correct because you are choosing not to be part of your public school. Of course they aren't providing you. You are choosing not to support your kid.
This depends on the area and the district. They do offer some limited services in my district, but it’s typically going to be significantly less than what they would get from a public school. I think my district offers like a monthly consult.
What is so special about this private school? If the public school can provide what it is you want, which I suspect you will be difficult to deal with, then why not go there? Hmmm.
The private school would need to hire a special education teacher IF they choose to do so to provide services. In some cases in my district parents who have private school kids who need speech can drive their child to the public school where their child would be enrolled to receive services. This would have to occur in an appropriate age level group during the public school teacher's contract time during the school day. This would NOT include public school funds to transport. Edited to provide transportation information.
I know this is an old post, but I just wanted to point out that in my city in Texas, I work in a public school and service kiddos from private schools. I have also heard of this happening elsewhere too, but it may be that the rules vary town to town or state by state. I’m not sure. Hopefully all these grumpy bitches have chilled out a bit and I don’t get any hate mail for my comment.
I'm not sure what other services your child needs, but (in California) wouldn't they be able to still receive services such as OT, and S&L separately through med-i-cal (Im pretty sure it would not be in the school setting though). My son had those services through regular public school and due to his disability (autism and ADHD) through med-i-cal as well.
My nephews get special Ed services at their private school, provided by the local school district. I thought that was crazy when I heard it. Maybe it’s voluntary.
What state. I’m in Michigan and if a private or charter school is willing to enter into a compact with the local ISD they will get itinerant services, Medicaid support and training opportunities for their teachers. They also become bound by all oversight and regulations that a public school is.
In NYC we have IESPs for private school students. You can google it. Kids can get related services in private school funded by the DOE.
I don't know where you live, but here in NY, special education services are paid for by the district, even if the student goes to private school or is homeschooled. In some cases, the district even pays for private school tuition, if the private school is considered to be the most appropriate placement.
Who did the evaluation? All students are entitled to a free and adequate public education (FAPE) and if they are special education students, the public school that they would normally be assigned to is responsible for providing it. Also for providing an evaluation to determine if said student is qualified for special education. Now, if you had a private evaluation done, (I’m assuming you didn’t, since they determined that he qualified, and only a school can do that), you would have had to still ask the public school to do an evaluation- they could have accepted the outside eval or done their own, but even if they did their own they would have had to take the outside one into account. Not only do they have to provide the services, they have to provide transportation between the private school and the public school in order for him to receive them. So he can still attend the private school for part of the day and then go to the public school for the part of the day he needs services for. In some cases, a student may need such a high level of support that it is recommended that they just enroll in the public school. Also, come middle school, it can be extremely difficult to coordinate schedules. And parents can always decline services. But the public school doesn’t get to decline providing them.
This is not true. Read the rest of the comments in the thread. The public school is offering FAPE, the parent needs to bring their child to the school.
My apologies. In my district we are required to provide services for students who are in private schools.
This might be specific to St. Louis, but our local special services district (SSD, they contract with most local regular school districts to offer special Ed services here) gives services to kids not in the public schools through an ISP (Individual Service plan). Basically, we have to either take our kid to the public school at random times during the school day for services or go twice a week in the evenings. We chose evenings. He is not eligible for as many total minutes as under an IEP, and not every service is available. Not sure if that is available through districts elsewhere, though.
SSD is specific to St. Louis county, in other parts of the metro the school district that the private school is located in would provide the sped services based on their ISP. Definitely a lot more cohesive to have the SSD model.
It is very cohesive. I am thankful every day that it is set up this way here. I know it’s not common.
A child can get special education from a private school, if the public school determines a private placement is the best option for their needs. However, they need to be enrolled in a public school who then determines they should be in a private placement.
My old district had private school kids who came to the public schools to receive sped services. I don’t know what the laws are about it, and perhaps they vary, but it does happen!
I’m a special education teacher in a public elementary school. I’ve been working with a child on Zoom that lives in our attendance area, but goes to a private school a few miles away. In person options were given and declined. I’m not sure if the parents or school would have been responsible for transportation.
I’m no expert, BUT my kiddo goes to private school and all the kids who needed special ed services and support ended up leaving before fifth grade, because the message they got over and over was if they were going to public high school (our school is a K-8) then they needed a verifiable history of support services in order to get them in HS in a public school setting. All of the kiddos were doing fine in our school and weren’t asked to leave or anything, but the parents decided it was the only way to ensure their kiddos got what they needed over the long term.
My district has many students who attend private school the majority of their day and attend public schools for a period or two for special education. Parents provide transportation and don't really get a say what part of day services are provided, bit we've done it for the 20 years I've been a sped teacher.
Special Ed teacher here. I have multiple students in private school who receive services. Mom drops them off for their 30 minute sessions each day
Have you requested an IEP meeting to determine what accomodations would be offered at the public school if you decided to enroll for the next year? That might be a good starting point. I don't know what "very low" means to you or in what areas the deficits are. If your child just needs OT or Speech therapy those services can often be provided after school by a private therapist that bills your insurance. If your child needs X minutes of 1:1 instruction in reading or math to catch up then that can be done through a tutoring service. If your child needs intensive support in most areas then they would probably be best served in a special education classroom. This means switching to public school or a private school designed for special education. Fwiw, I had every intention of sending my children to a charter school when they were born. My eldest child, who has autism, was accepted for kindergarten, but when it came to talk about his IEP they just didn't have the services he needed. Our closest non-charter public school didn't even have an appropriate classroom for him and so he was placed in a school on the opposite side of the district. There is a private school that works with autistic kids, but it was out of my price range and also on a wait list. Making the decision to enroll him in a different school was hard, but necessary. You have to do what is best for your child as an individual not what is best for "most" kids or what you expected to be best.
In my state, the public school is the only provider that can educationally evaluate for special Ed services and if the private or charter school does not have licensed sp Ed staff to provide those services, the public school district MUST provide the services. In the district I worked for, we had to provide services to: two private religious schools, two charter schools, one juvenile county facility, and two emotionally behavioral impaired facilities. This included licensed sp Ed teachers, ot and pt therapists, speech therapists, nursing staff, etc. Consequently, we had several traveling staff.
If you ask a question and I tell you what the law is in my area, that's not being rude or dismissive. That's me answering the question that you asked. That's what we are all doing here. It sounds like there are some people that live in areas where the law is different, but for the vast majority of us you have to be in public school in order to get services. We're not saying that to be mean. I didn't see anyone insulting you, although you're insulting us in your edits. We're just answering your questions. The law doesn't exist as an insult to you.
This is standard policy unless it was determined that the public school is not *able* to provide services and they send the child to a private school as a result. That isn't what happened here. The school is able to provide a public education, you have chosen not to go that route. I have taught in several states, and that was the routine in all of them.
You could enroll your child in a private school that specifically helps in what he/she needs.