Maryland Non-Public School Placement: How to Get Your Child Placed (and Funded)

Some children's needs genuinely cannot be met within a general education setting, or even within the specialized programs a public school district offers. When that happens, IDEA requires the district to fund a placement in a non-public school — a private or therapeutic school that can provide the Free Appropriate Public Education the district cannot.

This process is legitimate, available, and happens regularly in Maryland. It is also one of the most fought-over areas in Maryland special education, because non-public placements in Maryland can cost upwards of $68,000 per year. Districts resist them vigorously. Families who push for them need to understand exactly how the law works.

What Is a Maryland Non-Public Placement?

In Maryland, a "non-public school placement" refers to placement in an approved private special education facility at the district's expense when the local education agency (LEA) cannot provide an appropriate program. These schools are approved by MSDE and are designed to serve students with complex needs: students with autism who require intensive ABA programming, students with severe emotional disabilities, students with significant learning disabilities who need specialized structured literacy instruction, or students whose behavioral needs require a therapeutic school environment.

Maryland has a structured approval system for non-public schools. Approved facilities appear on the MSDE approved non-public list, and districts can only fund placements in these approved schools. If you are researching private therapeutic schools in Maryland, verifying MSDE approval status is your first step.

When Is a Non-Public Placement Required?

The legal standard is clear: a non-public placement is required when the LEA cannot provide FAPE in any program it offers. This determination flows from two core IDEA principles — FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education) and LRE (Least Restrictive Environment).

The LRE requirement means the district must first attempt to serve the student in settings closer to general education before recommending a highly restrictive non-public placement. But the LRE principle does not allow a district to deny an appropriate placement in order to keep the student in a less restrictive setting. If the less restrictive setting cannot provide FAPE, the more restrictive non-public setting is required.

Indicators that a non-public placement may be appropriate:

• The student has been in multiple in-district programs without meaningful progress
• The student's behavioral needs have resulted in repeated crisis interventions, restraints, or suspensions in district settings
• Independent evaluations recommend specialized programming the district does not offer
• The student requires a therapeutic school environment for mental health stabilization alongside academic programming
• The student has severe learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia) that have not responded to in-district reading intervention

Montgomery County's "Central IEP" Barrier

Maryland's large suburban districts have built administrative review layers specifically to slow down non-public placements. Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest district in the state, requires families to navigate a "Central IEP" team review before any non-public placement can be approved. This team adds another bureaucratic checkpoint between the family and the placement.

If you are in MCPS and pursuing a non-public placement, expect the process to take longer and require stronger documentation than in smaller districts. The Central IEP team will scrutinize whether in-district programs were genuinely exhausted. Your Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) and any private therapist reports need to make a clear case for why in-district programs are insufficient — not just different from what you prefer.

The Role of the Independent Educational Evaluation

An Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense is frequently the pivotal document in a non-public placement dispute. Under Maryland Education Article § 8-405, if you disagree with the district's evaluation, you can request an IEE at the district's expense. The district then has 30 days to either fund the IEE or file for due process to defend its own evaluation.

IEEs carry significant legal weight because they are conducted by professionals outside the district's employ, using a comprehensive battery of assessments. When a private neuropsychologist or educational psychologist recommends a non-public therapeutic school placement in an IEE, the IEP team is legally required to consider those findings. A team that ignores an IEE recommendation without providing written justification and Prior Written Notice is creating a strong basis for a due process complaint.

The Parent-Unilateral Placement Option

If the district is refusing a non-public placement that you believe your child requires, you have the option to unilaterally enroll your child in a private school and later seek tuition reimbursement. This is different from the district-funded placement process.

To pursue reimbursement successfully, parents must:

1. Give the district written notice — typically 10 business days before removing the child — stating that you are dissatisfied with the proposed public placement and intend to enroll the child in a private school at public expense
2. Keep the child in the district placement until the notification period has elapsed, unless the student's safety requires immediate removal
3. File a due process complaint seeking reimbursement

Courts and ALJs evaluate reimbursement claims by asking: (a) was the proposed public placement inappropriate, and (b) was the private school placement appropriate?

Maryland courts have awarded tuition reimbursement in cases where districts proposed inadequate placements and parents placed their children in appropriate non-public schools. This avenue exists, but it requires careful procedural compliance and is litigated at the due process level — where Maryland parents win roughly 19% of the time. It is not a step to take without strong documentation.

Building the Case for a Non-Public Placement

The strongest non-public placement cases are built methodically over time, not assembled at the last minute. Evidence that matters:

Progress data showing inadequacy of current placement. Document that the student has not made meaningful progress — not just some progress, but adequate progress toward ambitious IEP goals — in the current setting. Use the student's own progress monitoring data, comparing performance at the start and end of IEP goal periods.

Documentation of what the district tried and failed. If the district attempted multiple program modifications, staff changes, or interventions that did not result in adequate progress, that history supports the argument that in-district programs are insufficient.

Independent evaluations recommending non-public placement. A comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation or educational evaluation from an outside provider, recommending a specific type of therapeutic or specialized school, is one of the most powerful documents in this process.

Private therapist and medical records. Notes from private speech-language pathologists, behavioral therapists, or treating psychiatrists documenting clinical needs that the school cannot adequately address.

The school's own behavioral data. If your child's behavioral records show repeated restraints, suspensions, or crises in the current school placement, that data itself demonstrates the placement is not appropriate.

Requesting the Placement

Request the non-public placement in writing at the IEP meeting and follow up with a written summary afterward. Cite the specific evaluations and data you are relying on. If the team denies the request, demand Prior Written Notice explaining what data they reviewed and why they determined in-district placement is appropriate.

A PWN denial for non-public placement is not the end of the road — it is documentation you will need for mediation or due process. MSDE mediation is often an effective path to resolving non-public placement disputes without the adversarial burden of an OAH hearing.

The Maryland IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook covers the non-public placement request process, IEE procedures, and PWN demand scripts — grounded in COMAR and Maryland Education Article citations you can reference directly in your written communications with the district.

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