Home-schooled students not entitled to special ed |
By Pilar Sokol
Deputy General Counsel
School districts are not authorized to provide special education services to students with disabilities who are home-schooled by their parents, according to a memo issued by the State Education Department.
The memo is consistent with a June 2007 decision by New York’s State Review Officer. That decision said that home school students with disabilities are entitled to special education services under federal law only if home schools are recognized under state law as private elementary or secondary schools. Currently, that is not the case in New York.
The commissioner of education reached a similar conclusion in a decision that held that home-schooled students are not entitled to career education services or driver education classes. The commissioner said the students are ineligible because they are not enrolled in a private school for purposes of New York’s dual enrollment law.
School districts have child-find responsibilities, however. This means that, with parental consent, they must evaluate home-schooled students suspected of having a disability. Where appropriate, districts must develop an individualized education program which then becomes the district’s offer of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) if the student enrolls in public school. Districts may not compel the evaluation of a home-schooled student.
According to the memo, districts that are currently providing special education services to home-schooled students should:
- Reconvene their committee on special education and make any changes necessary to ensure the students are provided FAPE upon enrollment in public school.
- Advise parents to revise as needed the individualized home instruction plan required by commissioner’s regulations, to address their child’s special education needs.
The memo is available on line at: www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/homeschool.htm.