POLICY LETTER: March 17, 2008 to individual (personally identifiable information redacted)

Dated March 17, 2008This is in response to your September 26, 2007 letter to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in which you ask whether the policy interpretations stated in the OSEP letters responding to inquiries from Thomas Neveldine dated May 28, 1993 and January 25, 1995 still represent OSEP's position regarding a public agency's obligations to pay tuition costs when a public agency places a preschool-aged child with a disability into a private preschool for children without disabilities for the purpose of receiving a free appropriate public education (FAPE). We apologize for the delay in responding.Under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Part B), each State and its public agencies must make FAPE available to all children with disabilities residing in the State in mandated age ranges in the least restrictive environment. 34 CFR 300.101(a) and 300.1114 through 300.117. Because many local educational agencies (LEAs) do not offer preschool programs, particularly for three- and four-year-olds, LEAs often make FAPE available to a preschool child in a private school or facility. See 34 CFR 300.145 through 300.147 (obligations of public agencies to children with disabilities placed in or referred to private schools by public agencies as a means of providing special education and related services to those children).The OSEP letters to Thomas Neveldine dated May 28, 1993 and January 25, 1995 continue to represent the Department's interpretation of the requirements of Part B that are applicable when a public agency places a preschool child with a disability in a private preschool for children without disabilities for the purpose of providing special education and related services to that child. As your letteActing DirectorOffice of Special Education Programscc: Dr. Mabrey Whetstone