## Facts

- Clare Foley, an eleven-year-old child with a disability, was voluntarily enrolled by her parents in St. Peter’s Catholic School, a private religious school.
- The public agency responsible for special education services determined Clare was eligible for occupational therapy, physical therapy, and language services each week.
- The parents requested that the services be provided in Clare’s classroom at St. Peter’s.
- The school district refused to provide services on the premises of the sectarian school and instead offered a dual-enrollment plan requiring Clare to travel about one mile to a public school to receive services.
- The parents accepted the dual-enrollment arrangement under protest and pursued administrative relief.
- The parties stipulated that the district had offered Clare a free appropriate public education (FAPE) at a public school before the parents chose the private placement.

## Issues

1. Whether, under the IDEA as amended in 1997, a child voluntarily placed in a private religious school after a FAPE offer has an individual right to receive special education and related services on the private school’s premises.
2. Whether a school district satisfies IDEA obligations to parentally placed private-school students by offering equitable services at a public school location rather than on-site at the private school.

## Decision

- The court affirmed summary judgment for the school district.
- The court held that IDEA’s 1997 amendments do not create an individual entitlement for parentally placed private-school students to receive services at the private school.
- The court concluded the district’s dual-enrollment option (services at a nearby public school) was consistent with IDEA’s equitable-services framework where a FAPE had already been offered in the public system.

## Legal Principles

- After the 1997 IDEA amendments, services for children with disabilities voluntarily placed in private schools are provided through an equitable-participation regime for the group, not as an individually enforceable right to a particular service location.
- A school district’s core IDEA obligation is to make a FAPE available; when a FAPE is offered in a public school, a parent’s private-school choice does not create a federal right to on-site delivery of related services at the private school.
- IDEA does not require a district to provide special education or related services on the premises of a private religious school for a parentally placed student when equitable services are otherwise offered.

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit held that a parentally placed private-school student, offered a FAPE in the public system, has no individual right under IDEA to compel delivery of related services on the premises of the private religious school, and the district may provide services at a nearby public school on an equitable basis.


Foley v. Special Sch. Dist. of St. Louis Cnty., 153 F.3d 863 (8th Cir. 1998)