The Individuals with Disabilites Education Act guarantees a Free & Appropriate PUBLIC Education

[PA Democrat]

to students with disabilities. In the public school system "appropriate" education requires that teachers be certified in evidence-based strategies for teaching students with special needs. Private schools have much more leniency in interpreting what is "appropriate" and are not subject to the same state government standards as are public schools when it comes to the delivery of special education services.

This is extremely worrying for people who have spent decades advocating for the rights of students with special needs to receive an appropriate education based upon the needs of the individual student.

I personally know of parents who chose to send their children with special needs to private "Christian" schools with disastrous results.

So if private religious schools can receive public funding for educating students, what is to prevent private schools from in effect failing these students or by excluding students with special needs by failing to provide more expensive "appropriate" education services?

More information below:

Special Ed in Private Schools: What Parents Need to Know

https://www.commlearn.com/special-ed-in-private-schools-what-parents-need-to-know/

[nebby70]

1. as a long time parent advocate for special needs students....

.... it is already hard to get an agreement on getting the kiddo's needs met in the current situation ...
.... I have never, ever, in my 30+ yrs in the 'business' seen a private school willingly make even the most minor adjustment to programming to meet a special kid's need....
.... forget about providing speech or other therapy ....
... my experience with private school who claim they're designed for special needs kids only is they don't provide the service level appropriate either....

...... my head aches; this is dreadful --- but I guess it goes hand in hand with the push to abolish public ed completely......