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Private and Parochial School IEPs Assuming that the placement did not have to do with a dispute over FAPE, parentally placed children in private schools with disabilities have limited rights under IDEA 97. Parents of privately placed children would have the same right as public school children's parents to take a district to due process over issues revolving around the evaluation (assessment) or identification of their child. Districts are required to meaningfully consult with private schools about their children's needs in developing a service plan for privately placed children in their district, but they are not required (under federal law) to spend more than the federal allotment for those children. Therefore, parents would not have the right to file a due process suit over an alleged failure to receive FAPE because IDEA 97 specifically says that individual children have no such right. However, parents WOULD have the right to file a complaint with the respective SEA if they believed the evidence showed that there had been no meaningful consultation with private schools. Hence, also, the reason for calling the plan provided an ISP rather than an IEP--because "ISP" is the terminology adopted under the federal regulations. My personal assumption is that after having met with private school representatives, the LEA would be well advised to develop a plan for spending the federal money, but I have not seen any specific format for that. It's just my inference that in order to show that it had meaningfully consulted, a district should be able to show the results of that consultation. Additionally, since teams are not required to give a child every service he needs, only those needed services which are offered, I infer (perhaps mistakenly!) that there should be some guidelines for them to work from. In any event, ISP teams do not have the same power given to IEP Teams. These are actually pretty complex issues, and I would recommend that anyone who has to deal with these issues review the OSEP Q and A on private school children posted below. Note, additionally, that state laws may expand the rights under the federal statutes. There's a Pennsylvania case posted on Wrightslaw that expands the rights of parentally placed private school children in that state. Additionally, OSEP says that home schooled children in a state are only entitled to those services if the state specifically gives them the same rights as private school children. The answer to that question may or may not be an easy one to obtain from your SEA. A summary of the law can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/IDEA/Brief-10.html OSEP's explanation (consisting of a memorandum plus 45 Q and A's) of that summary seems to go on forever, and it can be found at: http://www.edlaw.net/service/private-school-obligations.html Guy |