Live in DC, attend private school in suburbs - who's responsible for the IEP?

[Anonymous]

DS has an IEP in the District (where we live) through Early Stages but we've decided to send him to kindergarten at a private school in MD. The IEP requires 1 hour of speech therapy a week, which we thought we'd still be able to get at our local public school, but we were just told that we can't do that because IEP services for kids in private school go through the county where the private school is located, not the county where the child lives - so we need to start all over again in MCPS.

This is a serious blow because we love the DCPS SLP who works with our son, and everything has gone so smoothly - I'm really worried about how long it's going to take to get services in place in MCPS and whether they'll be as good as what we've had here (for instance, my son gets 1-on-1 speech therapy now, will MCPS do that? Will they be willing to see him in the late afternoon so he doesn't miss school? What if they disagree with DCPS that the services are necessary? Ugh.)

Anyway, posting to see if anyone else has experience with this - any advice is much appreciated (especially if you know of a loophole that will let us stay where we are!)

[Anonymous]

I don't think you'll get MCPS services because you need to be a resident. When you have a kid in private school and you're a resident of MCPS, you don't get an IEP, you get a "service plan" and there are some services you can still have, and some you can't.

You should contact an advocate or someone in the know on this one. Sounds like you're getting the runaround from DCPS.

[Anonymous]

I was actually going to post about this issue tonight. The pp is right that you have to go to MCPS and, if your dc qualifies, will offer you a service plan. I'm not sure where they would send you for services - presumably to a school close to your private. I wouldn't count on the mcps speech therapist seeing your dc after school, though.

I live in MoCo and dc attended MCPS elementary and had an IEP. He transferred to a private in MoCo and had a service plan for ST and resource help but I declined the services bc I wasn't going to pull him out in the middle of the day. Now he attends a public in Fairfax and MCPS said I have to go to Fairfax to get the service plan. I could care less about the services -I just want to preserve dc's IEP bc he will likely return to MCPS at some point.

This is very annoying and I feel your pain, op. I'm going to research his later and I'll post if I find anything helpful.

[Anonymous]

If you live in Moco and go private, your service plan will most likely have services at your neighborhood "home" school. That is how it worked when went to the county for services for DS. FWIW, I was told that it's much much harder to get services if your child is in private (they don't really want to help you). Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that is the impression I got when my DS went in to see if he qualified for services. He did not qualify according to the county. BUT he has many expressive speech issues (they don't care as long as he is understood) and a huge lisp. We do private services.

[Anonymous]

When mine was in private school, he was bussed to the closest elementary school for his services. It was a lot of time out of class. We ended up doing private services after school. Services from the therapist after hours wasn't am option.

[Anonymous]

In DC, once a child starts school, the school otherwise known as the Learning Education Agency (LEA) is responsible for implementing the IEP. Some charter schools and DCPS work with Early Stages to provide services but many charters opt to be their own LEA and hire their own providers of services like ST, OT, etc. I'm not sure how services are provided for kids in private schools in DC - but will guess that it's up to the individual school or not and parents provide/pay for the services their child needs.

[Anonymous]

19:36 again. OP, you can call or email this person and ask how your child can receive services.

Tuesday Brown
Executive Staff Assistant, Early Stages & The PRO Office @ Walker Jones

District of Columbia Public Schools
Office of Special Education
1125 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Office 202.698.8037
Blackberry 202.270.9019
Fax [phone]
E-Fax [phone]
Email [e-mail]
Web Address dcps.dc.gov <http://dcps.dc.gov/>

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In DC, once a child starts school, the school otherwise known as the Learning Education Agency (LEA) is responsible for implementing the IEP. Some charter schools and DCPS work with Early Stages to provide services but many charters opt to be their own LEA and hire their own providers of services like ST, OT, etc. I'm not sure how services are provided for kids in private schools in DC - but will guess that it's up to the individual school or not and parents provide/pay for the services their child needs.

The above is what happens when wanna be's play sped educator.
1. the child's base is school belongs to an LEA: LOCAL Education Agency. Typically a county.
2. the LEA is responsible for oversight of any of its students who it agrees to place in a non-public setting.
3. the LEA is not responsible for students whose parents choose to place them in a private school in its jurisdiction if the parents aren't residents

[Anonymous]

OP, can't you ask the school where you're kid is attending for help?

[Anonymous]

Not to be a bummer, but I had an attorney tell me that If I placed my dc in a md private school that's not on the list of fun debacle by dc private schools, we'd lose our Ieper and have to start over to get a new one if we came back. Wondering if that's true.

[Anonymous]

It's true.

[Anonymous]

sorry my previous post was illegible -- i meant to say FUNDEABLE schools by DC.

sepearately, and yes i will do my homework, but does anybody know if McClean is on the DC OSSE list of fundeable schools?

[Anonymous]

I do not know if you have received an answer to this post or not, but I thought I would pass on some infomormation that may be helpful. The LEA where the child resides is responsible for providing the child with FAPE (a Free and Appropriate Public Education). The LEA where a child attends school is responsible for Child Find services and providing equitable services (such as an Individualized Service Plan). So, if you live in DC and you choose to send your child to a private school in VA or MD, the attending LEA is responsible for providing equitable services if the child is eligible as a child with a disability under IDEA. So, no matter where you got an IEP, the LEA where the child is attending school is responsible for providing equitable services. These services are not equivalent to an IEP, but they should cover about 1 hour a week of speech therapy. You do not have to complete the evaluation process over again, but you will need to meet with the attending LEA to develop the service plan. The LEA where the child goes to school is responsible for funding any Part B services. But, if you choose to come back to DCPS or any DC school that is not its own LEA, DCPS will be responsible for services. Typically, the criteria for a child to be eligible for a student with a speech and language impairment do not differ too greatly from LEA to LEA. But, if you child already has an IEP, the new LEA is on a strict timeline for implementing services. I hope that you have resolved this issue! If you go to the DCMR website, you can do a full text search for keywords related to your questions and you can search through the DC regulations based on IDEA.

[Anonymous]

This is really helpful. We're in the opposite situation. We live in MC and DS attends preschool in the district. We have our IEP meeting next week.