IDEA - Special Education

Overview
IDEA requires that every child found to have a disability be offered a free appropriate public education (FAPE). If the child remains in the private school, the law considers this a refusal of the offer of FAPE by the parent of the private school child with a disability. This group of parentally-placed private school children with disabilities is served with a proportional share of the federal funds generated under IDEA.
The public school district must administer and retain control of the funds and equipment used to provide IDEA services to parentally-placed private school children. All decisions are finalized by the public school district, after appropriate timely and meaningful consultation with private school officials and representatives of parents of private school students with disabilities. Child find, child count, and provision of services are the responsibility of the public school district in which the private school is located, regardless of the residence of the private school child.

Child Find
Child Find is the process of evaluation to determine whether or not a child has a disability and is in need of special education and related services. The cost of child find is separate from the proportional share of funds that must be used to provide special education and related services to the group of parentally-placed private school children with disabilities. The child find process must be completed within 60 days from the date the parents sign the permission form, unless the state has a timeline, in which case the child find process for private school children must be completed in the same time frame as for public school children.

Consultation Process
Timely and meaningful consultation must be conducted by the public school district with officials of private schools and representatives of parents of private school children with disabilities. The consultation must occur before the public school district makes any decisions that can affect the equitable participation of members of the group of parentally-placed private school children with disabilities.
There are specific topics required for consultation. Consultation is ongoing during the design, development, and implementation of the program. When the program has been designed in consultation and private school officials have been given a genuine opportunity to express their views, they will be asked to sign a written affirmation of consultation.

Provision of Services
Following consultation, the public school district provides special education and related services to those in the group of parentally-placed private school children that have been chosen to receive services. Services can be provided directly to the students or provided to the teachers and other educational personnel of the private school that work with students with disabilities. The services can be provided by employees of the public school district directly or through a contract by the public school district with a third party provider. Services can be provided on-site at the private school unless state law prohibits this. All of these decisions about provision of services are part of the consultation process.