Who Pays for Special Education: Parents or Districts?

Not having enough information on the particulars of this case-if the child was never served under special education services at a public high school; why should the district have to pay a private school. The particulars of the case of course are not all presented in this article, based on information it appears that the child has a drug problem. With prejudiced set aside-I do not see where it becomes the school responsibility to pay the cost of the private school. If the behavior issue is the dominant factor in this case-then the flood gates are open for parents of non disabled student to request payment from public dollars to the private school sector for the behavior issues their children may present. I do understand that the school may have failed to properly evaluate, however it does become a parental responsibility to oversee the children behavior and to request and or mediate any school decision.

Jackie of FL 7:37AM August 07, 2009

I have an 11 yr old daughter that has been in public schools since age 3 in special ed. This year in Forney, TX the school said based on her low IQ score she is mildly mentally retarded. In our school district there is only one school that has special ed services, but the kids in that class are severely disabled and we feel this would not benefit her to go to that class. How do I find out if Texas pays for Special Ed students to go to private school? We pay high property taxes here and most of it goes to our own Independent School District. If anyone knows I need to find out.

Angela of TX 11:52PM June 22, 2009

Exactly. And, how much do we spend on illegal immigrants for health care, education, nutrition programs among other services? We, who are legal residents, paying taxes, funding services for illegals. It's too political and our economy is now dependent on them. Shame on us. And, having a multi-handicapped child, I'm sick of how loosely the special needs term is being used. Are recent study suggested that 60% of the population is special needs. This includes obesity. And, in our state we are increasing coverage for the uninsured by tzxing hospitals and insurance companies. Who is going to pay for this? The consumer who has health insurance. Great, now our premiums will go up again. Suffice to say, a flat tax for all to pay for education, healthcare and everything else. Then we wouldn't be having these exhausting debates that accomplish so little and are a result of a chronically inequitable system.

MD. Fine of OR 2:05PM June 14, 2009

For those who have posted that Social Services and federal funds offer money for special ed. students, you obviously don't have a special ed. student to care for. And for N.Arrnn of VA, I can't begin to tell you how many laws I counted that are being broken by whatever school district you are referring to. While I am aware of some parents who do indeed rely on schools to "babysit" their special need child, there are far more parents working multiple jobs to pay for therapies NOT COVERED by insurance. We have sought assistance from social service agencies, only to be told that because of all the jobs we have taken on, we now make too much to qualify for assistance. So while the experts agree that early intervention is key to success for many children with Special education needs, we either pay the costs ourselves until whatever the gov't socialized medical program is developed,(most likely limiting the level of assistance for therapy based programs, like all the other private insurances have), or we rely on public education to help our children. Parents must become literate in special education law, if they can ever hope to gain an education for their children. There must be accountability within administrations that pick and choose who gets evaluated, not based on parental concerns, as Child Find Funds provide for, but rather how much money they will have on hand if they DO evaluate. There are more and more children being diagnosed as ADHD, Autistic, Emotionally Disturbed, and more. You can invest now, and provide a way for at least some of them to become functioning members of society. Or you can support the administrators who purposely withhold information about services available, gag teachers from speaking up in ARD meetings, and blatantly thumb their nose at the law. But once these kids, who came through the school systems of those administrators, become legal adults you will be paying for them until they die. Big picture people...invest now while there is interest to be gained. The next financial hit this country is going to face is paying for the failure of our education system to provide a free and appropriate education based on the individual needs of each child. When that day comes, the return on your tax dollars invested is ZERO. On top of it, you will have to support all those wonderful social programs that aren't doing squat now. What do you think they will be capable of doing in twenty years? The near sightedness of this gov't is rediculous. It should not take thirty years to debate what the word "appropriate" means. And those of us waitning for a verdict on THAT issue, should be able to get our American born children services, (paid for by our tax dollars) before illegal aliens renting are bused in and pull from the resources of a local educational agency. There is more code focused on English as a second language (ESL) than there is for Autism. Dyslexia, ADHD, Em. Dist., combined. IS THAT APPROPRIATE?

D. Crosby of TX 1:30PM June 13, 2009