Anonymous wrote:For the trolls posting here, parents who privately place their children continue to pay taxes that support public education, which they are not accessing. Parents that make this life changing decision for their families typically do so out of necessity. Schools won't or aren't able to teach their children and or provide them a safe environment. The stories are all over DCUM.

It would much more convenient and economical for a family to access their local public school, cultivate friendships with local families/children, utilize public transportation to transport kids to and from school, not have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for private schools, etc. choosing to go privately impacts relationships, schedules, finances, careers, commutes, etc. if schools were able to meet the needs of all students, parents would not be privately placing their children.

Stepping down from my soapbox.

Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of private school students using public school resources like this. Does it happen in VA and Md too?

If your kid is eligible for services, it does not matter if they go to private. They are still eligible for services through the public school system. In any state we have lived, this is the same. Services are required by the state and the school system is required to provide them to all kids in the district.

As an example, my child has a disease that is chronic and incurable. She is not able to physically attend school consistently. Homebound services are a joke in the public school system and my child was not getting an education. Even the school system said that they couldn't do it (and I probably could have won private placement if I chose to deal with it).
Therefore we cleaned out all of our 401k plan assets and savings accounts to provide her with the education she needs. But there are still some services that she can get through the school (not academics) and you can bet she both deserves those and that I'm not either willing or able to pay for them. I'm furious enough that she isn't getting the education she is eligible for from an academic standpoint and we will pay $60k just to get her the remainder of a high school education that she should have received in public school.
There are a lot of people in private schools who are there as a last resort and paying for it is a real struggle and burden.

For the trolls posting here, parents who privately place their children continue to pay taxes that support public education, which they are not accessing. Parents that make this life changing decision for their families typically do so out of necessity. Schools won't or aren't able to teach their children and or provide them a safe environment. The stories are all over DCUM.

It would much more convenient and economical for a family to access their local public school, cultivate friendships with local families/children, utilize public transportation to transport kids to and from school, not have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for private schools, etc. choosing to go privately impacts relationships, schedules, finances, careers, commutes, etc. if schools were able to meet the needs of all students, parents would not be privately placing their children.

Stepping down from my soapbox.

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't such a decision be considered "PREDETERMINATION" of services as it was not a team decision. The LRE box would need to be discussed again on the IEP forms. Are they holding addendum meetings for all IEP students?

Bring it to the news media. Contact Wrights Law.

+1 on "bring it to the media". Consider talking to Jay Matthews at WaPo. Also consider contacting DC council members.

OP, sorry you are getting abuse for this posting. People bring a lot of baggage to any discussion of private schools, and make lots of assumptions about your motives and attitudes. Hope you get through this and that your child gets the services she needs.

PP, good idea. I am OP one of the frustrating details is that our health care plan is actually through DC government, where my husband is an employee.

OP- while you try to fight this decision, you may want to look into the cost of purchasing an individual health insurance policy for your DC via Healthlink (Obamacare) rather than having her on your employer sponsored policy.

Some of the DC exchange policies cover speech therapy and it may end up costing you less than you would be paying out of pocket.

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of private school students using public school resources like this. Does it happen in VA and Md too?

It is federal law that every state use some of their funding to provide services to kids in private schools, but school systems have a great deal of leeway as to which services and how.

So, yes, MD, and VA, and all 48 other states do this.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I am not sure why this should matter, as I have paid taxes in dc for more than 20 years to support DCPS. But, let me explain things to the trolls (silly me). My family HAS tapped out all of our resources spending tuition on a very moderatly priced parochial school. Our DC was placed in a DCPS school, very she was subject and witness to violent bullying, in part due to her dissability. We asked the school to move her to a different class, and DCPS told us to go screw b/c our expectations for safety were "unrealustic." I'm talking bruises, hair pulled out in handfulls, pushing down stairs, etc. Our pediatrician recommended we pull our D/C out of DCPS for fear of long-term damage to her education. Our insurance will not pay one red cent of therapy, which costs $125 per hour. Just so you have the facts.

Sorry OP DC sucks especially for lack of providers covered by insurance.

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of private school students using public school resources like this. Does it happen in VA and Md too?

yes, this happens everywhere, and not just with IDEA funds. Lots of other federal education funds.