Home School Programs and
Special Education Services
Parents choose to enroll their children in home school programs for a variety of reasons. Some feel their child needs the small structured environment of home, some do not want their child exposed to the standardized requirements of public school, some are needing to avoid social situations or it could be that the child is involved in an activity that requires them to have an extremely flexible schedule.
If you believe your home-schooled child has a
learning disorders,
you do have the right to seek an evaluation and services.
The level of responsibility that the school district has for providing
special education services
to eligible home-schooled students depends on whether the IEP team determines that services should be provided.
If you want to have your child
evaluated,
you should contact the local public school district, state that your child is in a home school program and request an evaluation.
Once a home-schooled child is referred for a special education evaluation, the local public school is required to complete the evaluation within 60 days. You can use this
sample letter
if you need assistance in requesting a special education evaluation.
The district will follow the process outlined in
IDEA.
This includes:
Notifying the parent of the intent to evaluate and providing parents with their procedural safeguards.
Obtaining written consent for evaluation, placement in special education and development of the IEP.
Developing an appropriate
IEP
that measures the satisfactory educational process of the home-schooled child.
Re-evaluating the child for special education eligibility every three years.
The district has no legal obligation to provide services if:
The parent of a child in
home school programs refuses to give written permission
for the evaluation, revokes consent or refuses to make the child available for evaluation.
A home-schooled child is identified as eligible for special education services BUT those services would only be provided if the student were to enroll in public school.
If the evaluation finds that your child is eligible, you may consider enrolling them part time in the public school so they can receive services.
For example, you could enroll them for 2 hours on Monday and Wednesday’s so they could receive reading support from a specialist. Or, if your child is older, you could enroll them in an elective class or physical education class so they are on campus to receive support services.
If the services can be provided at the district office, you can ask to arrange a regular time every week so your child can attend the support program.
If you choose to implement the IEP and discover later that the services are not in conjunction with the home school program you are providing, you can always choose to terminate your consent and all services related to special education.
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