Home-Schoolers Must Get Own Therapy If Not Enrolled

Home-schooled children in New York who receive special-education services through their school district will have to get their own therapy or go to school full time.

The state Education Department notified school districts in January that they cannot provide the services.

In a memo to superintendents, the state says the federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act requires students who are home-schooled to receive the same special-education services as those enrolled in private schools, if the state designates home schools as private schools. But New York State does not recognize home schools as private schools.

The change came as the result of a decision by a state review officer in a case brought last year.

"It's a problem we had seen cropping up across the country," said T.J. Schmidt, a staff attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association, a nonprofit organization providing legal services to home-school parents. "The federal government basically leaves it up to the states to determine who is a nonpublic student."

He said many parents in New York have received letters from school districts telling them that the services will be terminated.

"Often these children are in most need of additional services because their parents may not be able to provide these services themselves, or they're going to have a difficult time getting these services outside school," Schmidt said.

The decision affects a relatively small number of students. There are about 450 children statewide receiving the services from their school districts, the state estimates.

In the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School District, the district is setting up appointments with the parents of four children, said Michael B. Haggerty, a spokesman for the district. Most of them receive occupational or physical therapy, he said. The district will go over the individualized education program for the pupil to see if any changes in services are warranted.

"The choice is, they enroll their student in public school or private school. If not, they're kind of on their own for the level of services their child needs," Haggerty said. "This is something the state decided, and whether we want to or not, we have to comply with the regulations."

Keli wrote:

If children and parents were allowed to op-out of the public school by vouchers, then I think that this would be legal for the public school to do; however, this only amounts to blackmail to force handicapped children and their parents to choose to attend public schrool. Homeschooling parents are paying taxes for the therapy for ALL children--aren't they?