The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has issued a new 55-page Q&A document providing guidance regarding the role of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when parents opt to send their children with disabilities to private school. Students with disabilities have broad rights when they attend public school, but federal officials are now weighing in on how the law applies when parents choose private school instead. Although under IDEA students with disabilities have the right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE), whether or not that entitlement extends to children at private schools depends.

In some cases, children enrolled at public schools are placed at private schools by their parents when they do not believe that FAPE has been provided by the local school district. In other cases, children are sent to private schools by their district as a means of providing FAPE.

According to the USDE, the document updates and supersedes guidance previously issued in 2011 and applies specifically to a third category of kids — those placed in private school by their families without first enrolling at public school and for whom FAPE is not an issue. In these cases, federal officials say that some provisions of IDEA still apply.

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To view the USDE document, click here.