Independent Schools Serving Special Needs Students
Independent Schools Serving Special Needs Students
Independent schools servingspecial needs students focus on individualized, holistic development to buildconfidence, early independence, and self-advocacy skills. Rather than focusingon a student’s limitations, area independent schools emphasize uncoveringhidden potential and fostering lifelong purpose.
Independent schools serving K-12 learners with differing learning styles often serve students in one or more ofthe identified categories:
· Specific LearningDisability (SLD): A common category,covering reading (dyslexia), writing, and math disorders.
· Other HealthImpairment (OHI): Covers conditions thatlimit strength or alertness, such as ADHD, asthma, and epilepsy.
· Autism SpectrumDisorder (ASD): Impacts communication,social interaction, and behavior.
· Speech or LanguageImpairment: Covers stuttering, impairedarticulation, or language processing difficulties.
· EmotionalDisturbance (ED): Includes mental healthchallenges like anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder that affect learning.
· IntellectualDisability: Covers below-averageintellectual ability with limitations in daily and social skills (e.g., Down syndrome).
· DevelopmentalDelay: Used by many states for youngchildren (typically ages 3–9) who are slow to meet developmental milestones.
· MultipleDisabilities: A combination ofdisabilities requiring specialized, combined support (e.g., intellectualdisability and blindness).
· Hearing Impairment/ Deafness: Covers permanent orfluctuating hearing loss, as well as total deafness.
· OrthopedicImpairment: Physical conditions affectingbones, joints, or muscles, such as cerebral palsy.
· Visual Impairment,Including Blindness: Covers vision issuesthat are not correctable with standard eyewear.
· Traumatic BrainInjury (TBI): An acquired injury to thebrain caused by physical force.
· Deaf-Blindness: Concurrently having both hearing and visual impairments.
Families looking at independentschools serving special-needs students must consider the legal and practicaldifferences between public schools and independent schools. Independent schoolsare not legally mandated to serve all students, nor are they regulated by stateeducation departments. What this means is that independent schools candetermine how they serve students with special needs and are not required toserve all students with special needs. A few key differences follow:
No Automatic Rights toAccommodations:
Independent schools can legallyaccept or reject applicants. They are not required to alter their corecurriculum or provide the same extensive accommodations guaranteed by a publicschool district.
Equitable Services Plans:
If your child is enrolled in aprivate school, your local public school district is still required to locateand evaluate them for disabilities (“Child Find”). However, instead of acomprehensive IEP, the district will only offer a limited Services Plan outlining“equitable services” (such as basic speech therapy or resource hours), whichoften falls far short of a full public school accommodation plan.
Tuition at independent schoolsserving special-needs students can be exceptionally high, often scaling upbased on the intensity of the required therapies. While financial aid isavailable at schools, it is limited. In a limited number of circumstances, in alimited number of states, public school districts will fund the costs of aspecial needs student at an independent school if the school district cannotprovide adequate services for the student.
Private Pay and Internal Aid:
Families pay out-of-pocket usingsavings, specialized K-12 loans, or tuition grants provided directly by theschool’s endowment.
Publicly Funded “Nonpublic”Placement:
If your local public schooldistrict explicitly agrees that they cannot meet your child’s needs, thedistrict’s IEP team may formally refer your child to an approved independentspecial needs school. In this specific scenario, the state or local educationagency covers 100% of the tuition.
Unilateral Placement and DueProcess:
Parents who feel their publicschool is failing their child can choose to pull them out and enroll them in anindependent school unilaterally. To get the district to reimburse the tuition,parents must file a formal Due Process complaint and legally prove that thepublic school’s proposed IEP was inadequate. This route is complex, highlyadversarial, and typically requires hiring a special education attorney oradvocate.
The Black Student Fund's memberschools include the schools described below.
The Nora School
As a college-preparatoryhigh school, the Nora School’s mission is to guide students to identify theirtalents, understand their challenges, and honor their unique identities. Itaims to help bright students needing to avoid rigid educational settings. Theyprioritize a “whole child” approach, blending academics with a strong emphasison social justice, self-advocacy, and community service.
The McLean School
The McLean School’s mission is to make education accessible, stimulating, and meaningful to a broad range of bright learners while fostering intellectual growth, confidence, self-advocacy, empathy, and connection. McLean supports a diverse range of K-12 learners, including those with learning differences and executive functioningchallenges. They focus on flexible, strengths-based teaching in an inclusivecommunity to help students “learn how to learn” for college and life.
The Lab School of Washington
The Lab School ofWashington embraces differences as advantages. The school’s core purpose is toserve and empower students in grades 1–12 with language-based learningdifferences (such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia) and ADHD. Insteadof focusing on diagnoses or deficits, the curriculum helps students uncover howthey think and learn to use their unique minds to their advantage.