Special ed rule change could hit districts hard 

While lobbying in the nation’s capital for increased federal funding for special education services, members of CSBA’s Federal Issues Council learned about proposed regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that have potentially devastating implications for local school districts and county offices of education.

In meetings with top special education and White House officials, CSBA Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Affairs Rick Pratt said the FIC was dismayed to hear about proposed federal regulations that could increase local education agency costs for certain special education students who attend private schools in their districts.

Pratt said the FIC was alerted to the proposed changes in a meeting with Assistant Secretary John Hager and Deputy Assistant Secretary Troy Justesen in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education.

“Requiring districts to pay for increased services costs for students from other regions who attend local private schools is a very bad idea,” said Pratt. “Basically, it would mean that District A could send one of its students to a private school in a neighboring district, and stick District B with a bill for additional services.”

The FIC repeated this message in subsequent conversations with Martha Snyder, the President’s Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy, and with Heath Weems, Legislative Assistant for Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Leighton Anderson, CSBA delegate from Region 24 and a school board member in the Whittier Union High School District, said private school placements are already the most litigious area in special education. The new proposed regulations could potentially make things worse, inviting more legal disputes and costing districts time and money that could be much better spent on direct services to students.

Under the current system, LEAs pay the costs of providing specific services to students from their districts who attend private schools – whether these schools are within district boundaries or outside the area. Districts and county offices are responsible for paying for private school placements for their students only in cases when the district or COE agrees that that local public schools cannot provide appropriate services.

The question of private school placement is a contentious and emotional one, and for many districts an expensive issue. In the most extreme cases, families and districts have become embroiled in bitter legal battles about who should pay the bills if parents opt to send a student with special needs to a private school.