When a family whose child has an IEP or a 504 plan looks at a private school, the first honest question is not "will you take my child?" It is "what can you actually do for them?" A school that answers that clearly is worth more than one that promises everything.
What a private school can do
A great deal, as it turns out. Accommodations, individualized learning plans, reading and academic intervention, one-to-one support, and progress monitoring that checks whether the support is working — all of it is real, and all of it can be coordinated with the plan a student already has. Small classes are what make it possible: a teacher who sees the individual student can aim support instead of guessing.
Meeting a student where they are is not lowering the bar. It is building the ramp that lets them reach it.
Where the honest lines are
Here is the part families deserve up front. A private academy is not a public school district, and the two operate under different rules. So there are things we coordinate with rather than replace:
- We work alongside an existing IEP or 504 plan — we do not author legally binding IEPs.
- We do not replace the special-education services a public district is legally required to provide.
- We do not conduct formal special-education eligibility evaluations, though we can point families to qualified evaluators.
- Therapies like speech, occupational, or behavioral therapy are coordinated with a family's outside providers.
Why the honesty matters
A family should enroll with clear expectations, not discover the limits later. The right fit is a school that names what it does well — support planned around the individual student — and is candid about the rest.
If that sounds like what your family needs, our Special Education & Learning Support and broader Student Support Services pages explain how it works, and our team is glad to review your student's documentation.