Martha Goodman
Maryland Special Needs Advocacy Project
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Advocacy for Parentally Placed
Private School Students:
The Forest and the Trees
Macks Center for Jewish Education
Baltimore, Maryland
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• For eight years, I have served as the coordinator of MDSNAP, which provides free
educational advocacy services to families in the greater Baltimore area, including
hundreds of private school students
• I am part of the statewide Educational Advocacy Coalition, am the Maryland
Disability Law Center representative to the Parent Community Advisory Board
for the Baltimore City School Commissioners, and participate in two schoolsystem based workgroups on special education issues.
• I am the loyal opposition, and the caped crusader
• I have attended hundreds of IEP meetings, filed many successful state
complaints, and have effectively participated in many mediation sessions.
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Who am I?
• I am Meira’s mother, and have advocated for her in both public and parochial
settings
• So, I am a parent and a professional advocate…
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In this presentation, “persons considered to be SIGNIFICANT,
especially because they are small or young”
PARENTALLY PLACED
PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENTS
WITH DISABILITIES
ARE CALLED PIPSQUEAKS
NOT
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Who is a Pipsqueak?
“a person considered to be insignificant,
especially because they are small or young…” (OED)
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Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
The Forest:
Advocating for the Community
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• Child Find
• Consultation
• Data collection
• Determination of services
• Service Plans
• Proportionate share
• No individual right to service
• Complaint procedures
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
IDEA 2004 – Equitable Participation
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• Child Find
• Comparable process/timelines, can be conducted by 3rd party
• Proportionate share of funds
• Timely and Meaningful Consultation process
• How will private school students participate and how will parents,
teachers and private school officials be informed of the process
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Consultation – I
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• Provision of Special Education and Related Services
• Who is served
• Types of services – direct, indirect, or a combination
• Must be “secular, neutral, and non-ideological”
• Where will services be rendered – may be on site, consistent with law
• Transportation
• Qualifications of providers must be the same, can be school system
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Consultation – II
employees, or third party contractors
• How to allocate limited resources
• Written explanation (but final decisions rest with LEA)
• Written affirmation required
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• “Each LEA must locate, identify, and evaluate all
children with disabilities who are enrolled by their
parents in private, including religious, elementary
and secondary schools located in the school district
served by the LEA...”
• “Must be designed to ensure—
1) the equitable participation of parentally-placed
private school children; and
2) an accurate count of those children”
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Child Find Process
Section 300.131
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• Vanilla
29%
• Chocolate
8.9%
• Butter Pecan
5.3%
• Cookies and Cream 3.6%
• Rocky Road
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
International Ice Cream
Association Study
1.5%
http://www.foodchannel.com/articles/article/the-top-15-most-popular-ice-cream-flavors/
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Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
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Yet, among private
school students, the
rate is only 1-2 %!!!!
Nationally, the rate of
student eligibility under
IDEA is about 10%
Examples:
• Baltimore City, 67 out of roughly
14,000 (2012)
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Some Child Find Statistics
• Only two dozen or so in
Chicago, where a complaint
was filed
• Texas: 985 out of an unknown
number! Over 444,000 public
school students have IEPs.
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About 2% of all students taking the SATs apply for
accommodations, and about 85% are approved
(Accommodations Angst, New York Times, 11/4/2010)
Private school enrollment rates vary widely across states
4%-18%
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Yes, there is self-selection, but…
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The only money school systems must spend on Pipsqueaks
is determined by the count of students who have been identified
through Child Find
Total Federal IDEA Funding
X Eligible Children in Private Schools
Total # IDEA eligible students
= Total Proportionate Share for PPPSSWD (“pipsqueaks”)
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Why Care?
Under-counting means under-funding
Census conducted between October 1 and December 1 to calculate
funding for the following year
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Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
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1 Pipsqueak, 99 Public School
$100,000 IDEA funds
2 Pipsqueaks, 99 Public School
$100,000 IDEA funds
$100,000/100
x 1 Pipsqueak = $1000
$100,000/101
x 2 Pipsqueaks = $1980
(and $99,000 for Public School)
(and $98,020 for Public School)
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Sample Calculations:
The Power of a Single Pipsqueak
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• About 25% of principals felt the explanation of the funding
formula as given at consultation was clear
• About 50% did not understand how the students were
counted
• About 75% did not know the level of required spending
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Mid-Atlantic Catholic School
Consortium IDEA Study
Conclusion
Private school community often can’t advocate for its
students, due to lack of knowledge
http://www.midatlanticcsc.org/news_events/files/IDEA%20MACSC%20ACE%20REPORT%2004.19.10.pdf
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• The LEA must provide to the SEA the counts for
•
•
•
•
Number of students referred
Number of students evaluated
Number of students found eligible
Number of students receiving service
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Data Collection/Recordkeeping
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• Inherent conflict – the pie does not get larger – each
additional Pipsqueak takes money out of the public
school coffers
• Lack of knowledge
• Lack of participation
• Location of services may dissuade families
• Limited range of services, other restrictions
• Reevaluations not being conducted
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Barriers to an Accurate Count
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• Be proactive! Don’t wait for the LEA to contact
you
• Document the needs of private school students
• Make appropriate referrals
• Attend consultation meetings, or send
representatives
• Document all your requests and concerns
• Make your teachers available for IEP meetings
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
What should Administrators do?
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• A private school official has the right to submit a complaint to
the SEA that the LEA did not
• Engage in meaningful and timely consultation; or
• Give due consideration to the views of private school officials
• If the official is dissatisfied with the decision of the SEA, the
official may submit a complaint to the U.S. Secretary of
Education
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Complaints
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Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
The Trees:
Advocating for Individual Students
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• Parentally-placed private school children with disabilities
means children with disabilities enrolled by their parents in
private, including religious, schools or facilities that meet the
definition of elementary school….or secondary school…
• State determines whether homeschoolers are considered
parentally placed private school students
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Who is a Pipsqueak?
• If the preschool is part of an elementary school (as defined by
the state), a preschooler may be considered parentally placed,
even though she is below mandatory school age
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Service Plan
IEP
No individual right to
service – not a contract
Enforceable contract
Provides limited services
– policies of the LEA
FAPE: Must address all areas
of need
Limited type, frequency,
duration, and/or intensity
Must be “reasonably
calculated” to make progress
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
What’s the difference?
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The LEA where the private school is located
– not the LEA of the parent’s residence –
is responsible for ensuring equitable
participation
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Jurisdiction
If a family is interested in receiving an offer
of FAPE, they must contact the LEA in which
they reside.
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• LEAs must ensure participation of representatives of the
private school (in person, by phone, or written
communication)
• However,
No personally identifiable information may be shared
without the written consent of the parent
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
IEP meetings for Pipsqueaks
• Similarly, no personally identifiable information about the
child may be released between officials in the LEA where the
private school is located and the officials in the LEA of the
parent’s residence without the written consent of the parent
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Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
THE
NORMAL
LAW OF ERROR
STANDS OUT IN THE
EXPERIENCE OF MANKIND
AS ONE OF THE BROADEST
GENERALIZATIONS OF NATURAL
PHILOSOPHY ¨ IT SERVES AS THE
GUIDING INSTRUMENT IN RESEARCHES
IN THE PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
IN MEDICINE, AGRICULTURE, AND ENGINEERING ¨
IT IS AN INDISPENSABLE TOOL FOR THE ANALYSIS AND THE
INTERPRETATION OF THE BASIC DATA OBTAINED BY OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT
W. Youden
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Same standards for all students, however, standards vary from
school district to school district.
Adverse educational impact
• Educational versus academic
• Medical versus educational
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Eligibility
RTI –
Clear ruling that RTI is not to be a barrier or delay to evaluationOffice of Civil Rights Q&A and subject of a state complaint in Illinois
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• Must be considered, but not necessarily “accepted”
• Regarding determination of a learning disability, commonly
the evaluation needed to be done by two different
professionals – one for the cognitive assessment, the other for
the educational
• While it is “backwards”, sometimes bringing data to the table
smoothes the process
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Outside Assessments
• One more thing: Pipsqueaks can request an IEE
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• For Pipsqueaks, due process is limited to Child Find issues
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Any organization or individual may file a state complaint
Provision of services
Service plan
Recordkeeping
Expenditures
Consultation
Equitable Services
Location of services and transportation
Use of personnel
Property, equipment an supplies
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
State Complaints & Due Process
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• The IEP team may not fully understand that it is their absolute
responsibility to carry out Child Find activities for private
school students in their district
• Be knowledgeable, considerate, and prepared.
• Just as in public school, you may be in a long-term relationship
with this team; start building a partnership.
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
Remember…
• Parents are the first and best advocates, but don’t go alone!
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Office of Non-Public Education (ONPE)
202-401-1365
www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/index.html
Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
202-245-7459
www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/index.html
Parents, Private Schools and Procedural Safeguards
For More Information
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