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Some services for students with disabilities are being halted in the Archdiocese of Chicago due to a lack of federal funds, with the archdiocese and the Chicago Public School system offering conflicting accounts of how the funding dried up.
The Archdiocese of Chicago says the city’s public school system abruptly cut off federal funding for the services without warning, while officials with Chicago Public Schools say the archdiocese made the decision to cut services internally, after receiving repeated warnings that it was running through its allotted federal funds too quickly.
St. Barnabas Catholic School in Chicago. Credit: St. Barnabas School / Facebook.For decades, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has helped fund special education services for students with disabilities.
Under the law, local public school districts receive funding for student services. The school districts must give a proportionate share of that funding to private schools enrolling students with special needs.
The Archdiocese of Chicago said in a statement Friday that CPS had abruptly informed it that a number of support services would be discontinued, beginning April 13.
More than 800 students with a wide range of disabilities and learning differences in archdiocesan schools will be affected by the loss of support services, the
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