Across the country, thousands of children attend private schools through publicly funded voucher programs and education savings accounts, with states giving money directly to parents to spend at a school of their choice.
But parents sacrifice legal safeguards if their child with a disability attends a private school through these programs, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office. Protections that require public schools to provide speech therapy, tutoring and specialized education plans do not apply to private schools.
The GAO report found that many states with voucher programs and education savings accounts do not inform parents of students with disabilities how their rights change when a child transfers to private school through a choice program. About half the private schools the GAO surveyed offered little or no information about their special-education services on their websites.