Private Placement: PRIVATE SCHOOL PLACEMENT

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Kathy:  My son has just been granted private school placement. We have looked at a number of schools. When I presented the list of schools we had toured I was told by the county that my son could ONLY attend a school that was accredited under VA state law as a school servicing children with emotional disabilities. Is this accurate? Can the school system deny placement in school that isn’t specifically designated as a school for children with emotional disabilities?

  1. My son is in Private placement because the school district did not have what he needed. I have been battling this school for a long time. My son is in 8th grade with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Autism. School will not follow IEP at all. He is failing all of his classes. One teacher I suspect is ripping up his work so she does not have to grade it. Effective today March 13 I gave a ten day notice to place my son back in another private school because I am tired of battling this school. The school responded by suspending my son for the next ten days that he would have been there. They are also telling me that I have to pay the tuition for the rest of the school year. Is this true? What recourses do I have?

    • If they will not participate in mediation, you could file for a due process hearing to request that they pay.

  2. Please help! My son is Autistic/ADHD and is in Private School. We pay for this school. School does not receive any federal money. Recently the school has decided that parents who have children with disabilities in the school have to pay more in tuition that those that don’t. There reasoning is that they want to mitigate their cost. Can the school do this? Is this legal. Thank you.

    • I’m not sure what state you’re in however my son is also in a private school with Autism/ADHD/Dysgraphia. In Iowa, the public school district in which we reside provides financial accommodations for our son. Not tuition but any financial “burdens” warranted in his IEP. Our private school also has a federal lunch program so they’re obligated to follow some of the IDEA laws.

  3. My son (AUTISTIC) was placed in private school because of smaller settings and class sized. Now the public district has decided they are not paying for him to go to the school anymore. When I asked they responded that they should not have to pay because he does not go to the public school. I reminded them that they had to pay for the school because their school did not offer what my son needed. The school does not care and basically said I am on my own now and I have to figure out how to pay for school. What should I do?

    • It sounds like the initial placement was a district placement, probably with agreement by you AND the IEP team. If that is the case, changing his placement must be agreed to by the IEP team. The initial placement should have been based on some compelling need that the school decided they could not provide.

      So, what’s changed? Do they have some additional resources now that they did not have before.? Keep in mind that IDEA requires the child’s placement should be in the general ed. class at his local public school…and only change his placement if that isn’t possible with “supplementary aides and services.”

      Remember that you have due process rights (procedural safeguards). Find a local parent advocate to work with.

  4. My son goes to a NPS private school. He was placed by the school district because the district has no class for autism at the time. Now he is in a different school district – high school and the HS district would like him to transition to their newly “created” classroom. They created 2 classrooms for students with autism in a different campus. We were asked to observe and told the case manager our availability. The case manager didn’t confirm with us with the date and time set so we didn’t have a chance to observe the classroom. Now case mgr. want us to see the class before IEP but we won’t available (father works out of state). Any thoughts about this?

  5. I’m sorry, I don’t know, but you can ask your state education department. Perhaps the special education quality assurance department, perhaps the special education department. You may be able to get an answer from your local parent center.

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