Finding the way back home: Funding for home school children under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Provides funding for the special education and related services required by children with disabilities. This funding is available for children who attend either public or private schools. The Ninth Circuit, in Hooks v. Clark County School District, decided that disabled children who are educated at home may be excluded from IDEA funding if they reside in states whose definition of "private school" does not include home schools. This Note critically examines the analysis of the Hooks court and determines that the court's reasons for deferring to state law categorizations Of howe schools are not persuasive. Additionally, a survey of state education statutes reveals that the Hooks interpretation of the IDEA creates an arbitrary scheme that both frustrates the Purpose of the IDEA and oversimplifies the ways and reasons that states categorize tapes of schooling. Home schools should be considered private schools for purposes of the IDEA.