The Code of Virginia (§ 2.2-5211.B.1 and § 2.2-5211.B.2) establishes that “children and youth placed for purposes of special education in approved private school educational programs…" are in the target population for the Children’s Services Act state pool funds. Section 2.2-5211.C. establishes that “the General Assembly and the governing body of each county and city shall annually appropriate such sums of money as shall be sufficient to (i) provide special education services and foster care services for children and youth identified in subdivisions B 1, B 2, and B 3 and (ii) meet relevant federal mandates for the provision of these services…."

Private day schools provide comprehensive special education services for students with disabilities. Many provide services to students within specific disability groups, for example, autism, emotional disabilities, and intellectual disabilities. For students, a private day school may provide a more structured environment and the opportunity to work on academic, behavioral, and social goals in a coordinated and integrated way that might not be possible in a public school setting. Some students display unsafe behaviors and learning challenges that are unable to be addressed at the public school. The student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team (a team of professionals familiar with a particular student’s needs and progress) makes the recommendation to place a student at a private day school, in keeping with the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and state special education regulations that require students to receive a free and appropriate education in their least restrictive environment. This recommendation often follows a public school’s multiple unsuccessful attempts at interventions and least restrictive environment changes to address the student’s needs.

In 2016, the Appropriation Act directed the State Executive Council (SEC) for the Children’s Services Act to review and develop a robust set of options for increasing the number of children placed for special education private day school services who later return to their public school settings. This included efforts to involve local public school divisions to track and monitor outcome data to assist in making decisions on the appropriate utilization of private day school services. The SEC commissioned a representative workgroup of stakeholders, which included many of those included in the current workgroup producing this report. The 2016 SEC report to the General Assembly (refer to RD429) included an option to “identify and collect data on an array of measures to assess the efficacy of private special education day school placements." As part of ongoing consideration related to the placement of students with educational disabilities in private day school programs, the 2018 General Assembly directed the Office of Children’s Services (OCS), in coordination with the VDOE, to facilitate a workgroup “to identify and define outcome measures to assess student’s progress in private day placements."

The required workgroup met in four meetings during the 2018 summer and fall. There was considerable discussion regarding the wide variety and severity of disabilities among the population of students who require private day school placement. Because of this, some in the workgroup were concerned regarding the relevance of global outcome measures of the educational services provided in the private day school setting. Other workgroup members mentioned that private day schools should be assessed on similar outcome standards as those for public school services for students with disabilities since public schools face similar challenges in serving this population of students. The 2018 workgroup’s findings and recommendations were presented to the Chairmen of the House Education and House Appropriations Committees and the Senate Education and Health and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees, pursuant to Item 282 (O) of Chapter 2 of the 2018 Appropriation Act on November 1, 2018.

Subsequently, the 2019 General Assembly passed HB1700, which reflects Item 129 (G) of Chapter 854. In response, during the 2019 spring, summer, and fall, the advisory committee met for five sessions to discuss the existence of and/or the need for the development of protocols for collecting and reporting on the outcome measures previously identified. In preparation for its deliberations, the advisory committee received a presentation from the VDOE’s Office of Education Information Management (EIM) on what is currently collected at the VDOE level relevant to students placed in private provider settings. This presentation noted that, historically, local educational agencies have been collecting data from private schools and reporting them in the Student Records Collection (SRC)(*1) using a generic code of 600, representing that the student’s educational placement was in a private provider setting. Following the discussion on how the data on certain identified outcome measures regarding a specific private school could be collected, all private schools have been assigned a specific school code by the VDOE’s EIM office to aid in the collection and tabulation of that data. After significant input from all stakeholders, the advisory committee considered modifications, additions, and deletions to the existing VDOE data collection elements on the following categories: (i) graduation rates; (ii) attendance; (iii) individual student progress; (iv) standardized test scores; (v) return to public school setting; (vi) postsecondary transition; (vii) suspension and expulsion; (viii) restraint and seclusion; (ix) parent satisfaction; and (x) student perspectives.

Additionally, the 2021 General Assembly amended Section 138.G of HB1800 (Chapter 552) to include 138.G.6 of the Appropriation Act. Most recently, the 2023 General Assembly Special Session I included Item 130 G.3 of Chapter 1, as previously cited.
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(*1) The Student Record Collection (SRC) system enables the Commonwealth and its school divisions to comply with the information and reporting requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The system also reduces the reporting burden on school divisions and ensures continuity and validity in all enrollment-based data collections.