National Association of the Deaf

On June 22, 2009, the United States Supreme Court made a decision on a case, Forest Grove v. T.A., involving the education of a child with a disability. The  Court decided that if a parent proves that the public school system does not provide a free and appropriate public education as required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the parent may be eligible for reimbursement for private school tuition. The parent may be able to get this reimbursement even if the child never attended public school. The parent would  still have to prove several factors before getting such reimbursement.

Parents are not required to wait until the school district offers them a special education program.  If the school district fails to offer either an appropriate program or any program at all, the parents have the right to place their child elsewhere and then seek reimbursement. The Supreme Court cautioned that this does not mean that parents are automatically eligible for private school tuition reimbursement. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the Court, stated that parents “are entitled to reimbursement only if a federal court concludes both that the public [school] placement violated IDEA and the private school placement was proper” under the IDEA. Parents who choose a private school placement before a final ruling on their IDEA case do so at their financial risk.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) applauds the Supreme Court’s ruling, which clears the way for parents to seek private tuition reimbursement even if they have never placed their children in the public school systems. NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins said, “This important decision reaffirms the core principle of the IDEA which is that all children with disabilities, including deaf or hard of hearing children, have the right to a free and appropriate public education.”