Private School IEP Washington State: What Parentally Placed Children Are Entitled To

Your child has an IEP. You have decided to enroll them in a private school — a religious school, an independent school, a specialized therapeutic program. What happens to the IEP? What services does the school district still owe you? And what are you giving up by making this choice?

The answers depend on a distinction that Washington law takes seriously: whether your child is placed in private school by the district, or by you as the parent.

District-Placed vs. Parentally Placed: A Critical Line

District-placed students are those the public school district determines cannot be appropriately educated in a public school and places in a private setting as part of the IEP. These students retain their full IDEA rights. The district funds the placement, writes and implements the IEP, and is responsible for delivering FAPE. The private school is essentially acting as the district's contracted service provider.

Parentally placed students are those whose parents choose a private school for their own reasons — cost, philosophy, religion, program fit — not because the district determined private placement was necessary for FAPE. This is the category most families fall into, and the rules are significantly different.

The rest of this article focuses on parentally placed students, since that is where the most confusion exists.

What Washington Requires for Parentally Placed Students

Under IDEA and the implementing WAC regulations, when a parent voluntarily enrolls a child with a disability in a private school, the child is not automatically entitled to the same services they would receive in a public school IEP. However, the child is entitled to something: proportionate share services.

Here is how it works. The school district where the private school is physically located must spend a proportionate share of its federal IDEA Part B funds on services for parentally placed students with disabilities in private schools within its boundaries. This is a per-student calculation based on the number of parentally placed private school students with disabilities in the district.

What this means practically: the district must identify and evaluate eligible parentally placed students, consult with private school representatives and parents about what services to provide, and develop a Services Plan (not a full IEP) for students who will receive services.

Services Plan vs. IEP

This is the most important distinction to understand.

A parentally placed student does not get a full IEP. They get a Services Plan — sometimes called an Individual Services Plan (ISP). The Services Plan describes the specific special education services the district will provide, but it is not an IEP, and FAPE does not apply to it.

That means the district does not have to offer the full range of services your child might receive in public school. The district's proportionate share funding limits what is available. In practice, a student who would receive 200 minutes per week of specialized instruction and 60 minutes of speech therapy in a public school might only receive one 30-minute session of a related service per week as a parentally placed student — or nothing at all if the district's proportionate share funds are fully allocated to other students.

The Services Plan must be developed in consultation with you as the parent, and you have the right to refuse the services offered without losing any other rights. If you decline the district's offered services, your child receives nothing from the district — the district has no further obligation.

The Child Find Obligation Still Applies

Even for parentally placed students, Washington school districts retain their Child Find obligation under WAC 392-172A-02040. Districts must make affirmative efforts to locate, identify, and evaluate all children with disabilities residing in or attending private schools within their boundaries.

This means if your child attends a private school and has not been evaluated, you can still request an evaluation from the school district of the private school's location. The district must conduct the evaluation at no cost to you. The evaluation follows the same timelines as a public school evaluation: 25 school days to respond to the referral and 35 school days to complete the evaluation after receiving your consent.

However, finding that your child is eligible for services only results in a Services Plan and proportionate share services — not a full IEP with FAPE protections.

Where the Services Are Delivered

This is a practical question families often overlook. Services under a Services Plan can be delivered at the private school, at the public school, or another neutral site — depending on what is appropriate and what the district determines is logistically feasible. Some districts will send a speech-language pathologist to the private school; others require the student to come to a public school building for services.

Negotiate this early. If the service location requires you to transport your child to a public school building several days per week, that may affect whether accepting the services makes sense for your family.

Transferring Back to Public School

If you decide to return your child to public school, the existing Services Plan does not automatically become an IEP. The public school district must hold an IEP meeting and develop a full IEP before services begin under IDEA's FAPE requirements. The district cannot simply adopt the Services Plan as-is.

One practical note: if your child has not had a public school evaluation recently (evaluations are valid for three years under Washington law), you may need to consent to a new evaluation to re-establish eligibility under the public school IEP framework.

The transition is typically faster than an initial evaluation — districts can often use existing evaluation data if it is sufficiently current and comprehensive. But expect at least a brief gap period while the new IEP is developed.

What Private Schools Themselves Must Do

Private schools that accept students with IEPs do not have the same legal obligations as public schools under IDEA. Private schools are not required to implement an IEP as written. If a student is district-placed, the district maintains IDEA responsibility and typically has a contractual arrangement with the private school to implement the IEP. If the student is parentally placed and receiving Services Plan services, the private school has no legal obligation to coordinate with the district.

If you are choosing a private school specifically for its special education programming, get specifics in writing: what services they provide, how goals are tracked, what parent communication looks like, and how they handle students who are not making expected progress. Do not assume the school's program will function like a public school IEP.

Getting an Independent Evaluation If You Disagree

One right parentally placed students do retain: if the district conducts an evaluation and you disagree with the results, you can request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at public expense. The district has 15 calendar days to either agree to fund the IEE or file for due process to defend its own evaluation. That timeline and that right apply regardless of whether your child is in private school.

The Washington IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a section specifically on navigating private school and district relationships — including how to request Child Find evaluations, what to ask for in a Services Plan, and how to document the transition back to public school without losing ground. Get the complete toolkit at specialedstartguide.com/us/washington/iep-guide/

The private school decision involves real tradeoffs. Understanding exactly what your child retains under Washington law — and what changes — lets you make that choice with your eyes open.

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