What the School Has to Provide, Free

The short version, before the legal text

There is a route to social and behavioural support that costs a family nothing. It is written into federal regulation. It runs through an IEP.

Almost no provider page mentions it. That is not very surprising. It competes directly with what they are selling. It does mean that a parent who reads only provider pages will never learn that the option is there.

Below are the provisions that matter, quoted whole.

The first regulation: what counts as a related service

This is 34 CFR 300.34. It defines the term "related services". That is the category this kind of support sits inside. Here is paragraph (a), complete:

Related services means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education, and includes speech-language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. Related services also include school health services and school nurse services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training.

Three items in that list matter here. Counseling services. Psychological services. Social work services in schools. The same regulation defines each one. Here are all three, complete.

Counseling services, at paragraph (c)(2):

Counseling services means services provided by qualified social workers, psychologists, guidance counselors, or other qualified personnel.

Paragraph (c)(10) says psychological services includes the six things below. All six are printed, in order, with nothing taken out:

(i) Administering psychological and educational tests, and other assessment procedures; (ii) Interpreting assessment results; (iii) Obtaining, integrating, and interpreting information about child behavior and conditions relating to learning; (iv) Consulting with other staff members in planning school programs to meet the special educational needs of children as indicated by psychological tests, interviews, direct observation, and behavioral evaluations; (v) Planning and managing a program of psychological services, including psychological counseling for children and parents; and (vi) Assisting in developing positive behavioral intervention strategies.

Paragraph (c)(14) says social work services in schools includes the five things below. Again, all five, in order, with nothing taken out:

(i) Preparing a social or developmental history on a child with a disability; (ii) Group and individual counseling with the child and family; (iii) Working in partnership with parents and others on those problems in a child's living situation (home, school, and community) that affect the child's adjustment in school; (iv) Mobilizing school and community resources to enable the child to learn as effectively as possible in his or her educational program; and (v) Assisting in developing positive behavioral intervention strategies.

Look at what is sitting in plain sight in that last one. Group and individual counseling with the child and family. That is not a reading of the regulation. It is the text.

Two other phrases are worth noticing. Both definitions end with the same one: assisting in developing positive behavioral intervention strategies. And the psychological services definition names psychological counseling for children and parents. Parents, in the regulation, not just the child.

The second regulation: what the goals have to cover

This is 34 CFR 300.320. It defines an IEP. Paragraph (a)(2) is the part about goals.

It opens by requiring, at (2)(i), a statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals designed to do the two things at (A) and (B). Here are both, and then the whole of (ii) after them, with nothing taken out:

(A) Meet the child's needs that result from the child's disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum; and (B) Meet each of the child's other educational needs that result from the child's disability; (ii) For children with disabilities who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate academic achievement standards, a description of benchmarks or short-term objectives;

The clause that matters here is (B). Each of the child's other educational needs that result from the child's disability.

The word "other" is doing real work there. Needs that are not academic still count. Social and behavioural needs sit inside that category.

Why these are printed whole

Because you cannot check a quote you cannot see the edges of.

Fact sheets tend to lift the one clause that supports the point being made. Then they cut the rest. The reader has no way to tell what came out. Neither does the next person who copies it. So both provisions above are printed entire, with nothing removed and no gaps.

If something in them weakens the case this page is making, it is still there. That is the point.

One note on how they are set out. In the published regulation, three of these definitions run their opening words straight into the numbered list with a long dash. This site does not print that character anywhere, so those opening words appear just above the quote instead of inside it. Nothing inside any quotation has been shortened, summarised or skipped, and no item has been left out. You can hold any of it against the linked source at the bottom of this page.

What none of this promises

This part comes before the practical part on purpose.

Nothing above is a promise about what your district will do. Rules, funding, staffing and practice differ by state and by district. The ones that matter to you are the ones where you live.

A regulation listing a service is not the same as a district agreeing your teenager needs it. It is also not the same as a district having someone free to deliver it.

What the text does give you is this. The request is a normal one with a citation behind it, rather than an unusual favour to ask. That changes the tone of a conversation more than people expect.

And three things are separate: a diagnosis, an evaluation, and eligibility. Each is decided by a process, not by this page. If you want to know whether your teenager qualifies, the answer comes from an evaluation.

Three words you will hear

IEP. An individualized education program. The second regulation above is its definition.

Related services. The category defined in the first regulation above. It is a list of kinds of support, not a list of products.

Evaluation. The process a district uses to work out eligibility. How it runs, and how long it takes, is set locally. This page does not describe it, because it varies.

Making the request

Three things, and none of them costs money.

1. Put it in writing, by email, so that it is dated. A phone call leaves no record.
2. Say clearly what you are asking for. A request for an evaluation is a different thing from a request to add a service to an IEP that already exists.
3. Ask for the district's timeline in the same message.

You do not need legal language. You do not need to quote the whole regulation at anybody. Naming it is enough. The reason it is printed in full here is so that you know what you are naming.

The shape of the email

Short is better than thorough. Five or six lines will do it.

• What you have noticed, in plain facts rather than conclusions. What is being avoided, and since when.
• What you are asking for, named exactly.
• The citation. "Related services under 34 CFR 300.34" is enough.
• A question about the timeline.
• Your phone number.

Do not diagnose your own child in the email, and you do not have to guess at a category. Describing what you see is your part. Working out what it means is the evaluation's part.

What this page cannot tell you

Whether your district will agree. How long it will take. What the support would look like if it happened. Those answers are local, and this site is not.

What it can tell you is that the free route exists, that it has a regulation behind it, and that you can read the regulation yourself. It took about four minutes to print above.