The Supreme Court issued a big decision yesterday that has special education advocates cheering and school districts breaking out in cold sweats. The court ruled that school districts may be required to pay private-school tuition for some students with disabilities, even if they never received special education services in a public school previously. Some kids are undoubtedly better off in private settings, particularly when the school district lacks the expertise or resources to serve a particular student’s needs. But private-school tuition is expensive and public school districts aren’t getting any richer. I’m not sure that this will lead to substantially higher numbers of kids being placed in private schools, but parents may now feel more empowered to demand that public school officials do more to assure that their children are being provided a free and appropriate public education. Not necessarily a bad result.
I don’t know that that is the best way to go about it. It seems that the district should have to pay to accommodate the individual disabled child within the public school system.