TA Supreme Court Decision

In a decision made in June 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parents could ask for reimbursement of tuition that they would pay at a private school for their special education child even if they had not received special education services in the public schools.

Up until now the” Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) prohibited private school tuition reimbursement for students who never received special education services in the public schools”, (Lewin, June 2009). But the recent ruling in the TA case concludes that free and appropriate public education (FAPE) was not made available in a timely manner.

I understand the judge’s ruling but think that it is necessary for parents to give public schools the opportunity to address the child’s issue because they have the resources in place to assist the student. In the TA case the parents never gave the public school the opportunity to remedy the situation instead they elected to send their child to a special private school that costs over $5000 a month.

The public schools given the resources already in place provide the best economical choice to assist students. It is not practical to ask the public schools to fund the cost of private schools with the limited financial resources they are faced with every year. This choice made by TA’s parents is one that they decided upon with no collaboration from the public school.  Therefore the public school should not have to fund their choice when they have a resource in place but parents ignore it.

Lewin, Tamar, June 22, 2009. Retrieved from web based article in the New York Times Education Section  from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/education/23special.html?_r=1

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=105797012&m=105796997