Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the “IDEA“, you may be entitled to reimbursement when you enroll your child in a private school if your school district does not provide your child with a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
To determine whether a parent is entitled to reimbursement, courts apply a three-prong test, which assesses the following:
[i] whether the school district’s proposed plan will provide the child with a FAPE;
[ii] whether the parents’ private program and placement is appropriate to the child’s needs; and
[iii] a consideration of the equities, or whether the parents have cooperated with the school district (and did not impede the school district from developing an appropriate plan, for example, if parents refuse to attend IEP meetings for their child, that could be deemed as uncooperative and the court may find that the parents were uncooperative and therefore deny reimbursement).
If a court determines that the school district has failed to provide a child with a FAPE, and that the parents’ private placement is appropriate to the child’s needs, and that the parents have cooperated with the school district, all three prongs will have been met under the applicable law, and a parent will thus be entitled to reimbursement for private school tuition and costs.
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