Speech Services Thru School District for Kids in Private School

Have the IEP written for services as if he were going to the public school. If it is recommended that he receive services 2x a week, then the IEP should be written that way.

When, and if, he is accepted and enrolled in a private school, my understanding is that the public school system is required to honor the IEP at a public school. (Rarely, they will send someone to a private school, but this not required.) Then it will be up to you to provide transportation to the public school for services.

Congratulations on his progress. It sounds like he and the system have done a great job!

Every state is different... sort of. IEP services are governed largely by Federal Regulations and if states receive Federal money, they must comply at minimum with Federal Regs. Yes, I have worked as a Special Education administrator.

So, here's the deal... your child's eligibility for services is NOT determined by his enrollment. Either he needs speech or he doesn't. If he is eligible for continued services, then arrangements will be made to provide your child with speech DURING the school day. How each district interprets this varies greatly, depending on "pockets of need" and funding.

Please keep in mind the following:
- School aged eligibility is VERY different than preschool. It goes from looking at "how delayed" your child is into "educational impact". Essentially, your child can still be delayed, but if the impact on his ability to learn or demonstrate his understanding is not substantial, then he may be dismissed.
- The district has to provide therapy, but they do not have to provide those services at a private school. Some elect to do so if there are a bunch of kids who need speech- they hire an itinerant therapist who works exclusively with parentally placed private school children. If there isn't a group, then they will make arrangements to transport your child to the closest elementary school for therapy.
- Most districts to NOT respond positively to a parent bringing an advocate for no reason. You haven't even given them a chance to say "yes"... you are already assuming that they will deny a request. When a parent attended my meetings with an advocate without ANY history of denial of services, it usually resulted in the child getting the "minimum" required b/c advocates tend to be overly rigid and unwilling to think outside of the box.

Good luck and remember that when you elect to enroll your child in a private school, you do NOT relinquish your right to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). That is your regulatory "leg" so to speak. That has changed notably over the last 30 years.

Hi E.,

You can't go by advice from non-CA moms -- every state has different funding and legislation on this matter. I'm not sure what the law says now, but when we moved our daughter from public to private school in the Los Angeles area (LA City Schools) in 2004, we lost our right to speech services. As I recall, this was mainly because speech is a pull out program that requires the child to have access to the therapist at the public school. Neither the private nor the public school was allowed to provide transportation, thus the services could not be delivered during school hours. I'm not sure if we could have had services if we had shuttled our daughter back and forth, but we weren't able to do this anyway (I worked over an hour away and my DH was in graduate school at the time). We couldn't afford both private school and private speech therapy, either, but we did find that Cal State U Northridge offered speech services at a cost that was the fraction of the cost of private care, and they offered evening services that we could work into our schedule.

I would check with the district office of whatever public school district you're in. They will be able to tell you what your options are, if any. If you have to get private speech therapy, check out the local universities, and see if any offer speech services at discount prices -- but do understand that your child will be seeing a student therapist under the direction of the professorial staff. At the time, CSUN had one of the best speech therapy schools and treatment programs in the country, although I understand that's changed since so much funding has been lost.

If the only option is to stay in public school to receive the speech services, personally, I would stay with the public school until the speech issues are resolved. You can supplement your child's education at home if need be far more economically than you can paying for speech services, and those speech skills are not only essential for later success in school and career, but can also make a huge difference socially. My daughter had a difficult time making friends for the first couple of years of school until her articulation improved -- the kids simply couldn't understand what she was saying, so it was very difficult to build relationships.

Good luck!

I do know a few families who send 2 of 3 kids to private school. The public school child get the special services through the state. I am not sure if they could do both (but there must be a reason the child with services is not in private school with siblings). I would like to hear more if you do get answers from TASK. Sorry I could not help, hopefully you can help others though.

Did he start getting speech therapy thru the school district before he was three? Yes, I am almost 100% sure, he should be able to get them thru the district. However, you will have to bri g him to the public school.

It was told that if you go to private school, no services can be granted to the kid. This is action of OPT-OUT.

Yes, you can do this. The IEP will carry over. Just call the school district that your private school is in. They will have a speech therapist call you to set it up.

When my son was in preschool at our private school, I would pick him up 10 minutes early and take him one block down to the public school where he would receive his speech therapy.

I was lucky that our private school started offering in house speech therapy once he got to kindergarten. A speech pathologist from the school district would come to our school one day a week to provide therapy.

My son is 4, and he does attend the local elementary school (in PreK), so I'm not sure. I can tell you that last year (when he was not enrolled) he still qualified for speech therapy. He has an IEP.

The school district was obligated to provide services at the school, but they had no obligation to provide transportation. I had to take him myself. School started at 8:00, but the speech therapist met us at 7:30 am. So once a week, we had speech at 7:30 am! This meant for a crazy morning each week, but we made it work.

Laws very from state to state, but I thought this was a federally mandated service. Don't quote me on that, but talk to the school district about trying to work something out. Also, I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of sending him to public school. I totally understand your reasons, but you might want to consider it as one of your options. Just keep an open mind, as helping him with his speech is a huge part of him getting a good education.

My understanding is that Private schools are not held ot the law on that stuff.. Like the public school.

With that said, my private school does have math, reading and speech help. but each one is different.. Check a few differnt private schoools, you might find one that can offer him the right help he needs.

Good luck

He has a right to those services, at a public school. You can't compel the public school to pay someone to go to a private school and give you child services.

Most communities have means and need tested programs but it doesn't sound like you can qualify.

It is a choice, private school no services or public with services. We sent our third to public schools because the services were more important than the private school structure.