ISBE released a guidance document on residential placements, Guidance on PA 95-0844 and PA 95-0938. The document answers frequently asked questions related to residential placements of general education and special education students, as well as students who are placed in residential placements by state agencies and students in the care of the DCFS or who are experiencing homelessness. Although consideration should be given to the guidance, hearing officers and courts are not required to follow it, so school districts should exercise independent judgment when making determinations on residential placements.
The guidance advises that school districts should only place a special education student into a residential facility if that placement is determined to be the least restrictive environment for the student by the student's IEP team, and that school districts are not responsible for paying for special education students whose parents unilaterally enroll them in residential placement so long as the school district offered the student a free appropriate public education. Students who are temporarily placed in a facility for the purposes of psychiatric rehabilitation are not considered residential placements and, rather, should be considered under Section 14-13.01(a) of the School Code. As a reminder, while Illinois law provides that special education students may continue to receive educational services under state law through the end of the school year during which the student turns 22-years-old, IDEA funding ceases for students after they turn 22-years-old. The guidance accordingly states that school districts and ISBE may only expend IDEA Part B funds to students under the age of 22.
The guidance also addresses residential placements in non-approved facilities. It confirms that school districts may only receive reimbursement for placement of a student in residential placements where ISBE provided emergency and student-specific approval or the placement is ordered by a due process hearing officer contracted by ISBE. As such, school districts that move forward with placement at non-approved facilities prior to receiving reimbursement approval do so at their own risk. Accordingly, school districts who enter into settlement agreements with parents to place a student in a facility not approved by ISBE cannot receive reimbursement for such a placement.
In order to receive emergency and student-specific approval of a non-approved facility from ISBE, one of the requirements is that the school district show ISBE that it made a good faith effort to place the student in an approved facility but the approved facilities did not accept the student or did not have availability for the student. The guidance warns that a parent refusing to sign releases for applications to ISBE-approved facilities or refusing to agree to placement at residential facilities does not meet this requirement.
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