FREE APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION (FAPE)

Under the IDEA, a student with a disability is assured the right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). If a student’s local public school system cannot meet the special education needs of the student—in other words, if it cannot offer an appropriate education to the student in the public school—then the public school system must provide the student with other means to an education free of charge to the parents. Under such circumstances, the public school might pay for the student’s tuition at a private school better suited to meet the student’s needs, or the public school might pay for personalized home tutoring for the student. The cases in which this happens tend to be rare, but if the public-school system cannot educate a child appropriately, then parents have the right (and the school has the responsibility) to find an effective means of educating their child.

If a student with an IEP is homebound and cannot attend school due to his own health, the local public-school district has the responsibility to pay for homebound tutoring. Such circumstances often leave the parents with little control over the quality of the tutors sent to work with their child, but homebound tutoring might very well turn out to be a successful, if only temporary, solution for many individuals with Barth syndrome (BTHS).