Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), a school system must provide every student with disabilities a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). If a student with disabilities has needs agreed on in his or her Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that cannot be met by any public service within his or her school district in the child’s Least Restrictive Environment, the school district must pay for the student to receive an appropriate education in a private environment. The legal guidelines are simply stated, but determining publicly-funded private special education placements is a complex process, with socio-economic dimensions and political implications. The unique process and confidential nature of each placement cloud an understanding of access to private special education placements. Furthermore, significant variation in the percentage of students with IEPs in these placements between and within states and competing narratives about who receives these placements and why warrant an examination of structural influences.

To better understand the process of making private special education placements through the IEP process, I designed a qualitative study to explore the question: How are decisions on nonpublic special education placements made in a specific school district? The school district I selected to study, which I refer to in this project as the District, is a large metropolitan school district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. In this school district, 550 students, about 3.5% of all students ages 6-21 with IEPs, were served in a publicly-funded private special education school placement. While this percentage is small, private special education placements are a significant public expense. In the same year, 2016, these 550 private day and residential placements cost $41,866,770, which is a little more than 13% of that year's total special education expenditures in the District.

For this ongoing study, I plan to interview many different participants in the process including district and school officials, health specialists, lawyers, and parents over the next few months. So far, I have interviewed two white, male lawyers who each have decades of experience in special education law in the region. These two interviews provide valuable information into the process of special education private placements in the District. After conducting an initial analysis, two themes emerged. First, the lawyers described two distinct ways a private special education placement is made. Second, publicly-funded private special education placement decisions or court judgements rely on evidence that the current service is inappropriate as loosely defined in the Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) mandate in the IDEA. Within each theme are several relevant insights about the influential variables and political dynamics involved in the private special education placement process of this school district.