Act 173 Vermont Special Education and Homeschool: What Families Need to Know

Vermont Act 173, passed in 2018, restructured how the state funds special education. If you're a Vermont homeschool parent of a child with a disability — diagnosed or suspected — Act 173 affects the resources available to your local school district and, by extension, what services you can reasonably request for your home study student.

This isn't a simple story. Act 173 was designed to improve equity and service delivery in public schools. Its interaction with the home study population is indirect but real. Here's the practical breakdown.

What Act 173 Changed

Before Act 173, Vermont special education funding was primarily categorical: districts received reimbursement based on the number of students identified with specific disabilities. This created incentives to over-identify students (more diagnoses = more reimbursement) and created funding volatility.

Act 173 shifted Vermont to a census-based funding model. Instead of counting individual identified students, the state allocates a base per-pupil amount for all students — expecting that a certain percentage will need special education services based on population averages. Districts receive funds based on total enrollment, not disability counts.

What this means in practice:

• Districts have more predictable base funding for special education
• The incentive to over-identify students for funding purposes is removed
• High-cost students (complex disabilities, multiple needs) are still eligible for additional "high-cost" reimbursement above the census base
• Districts are expected to use universal multi-tiered support systems (MTSS) to address learning needs before identification

Act 173 also expanded the definition of which students can access support services — it emphasizes early intervention and tiered support, not just formally identified special education students.

Your Home Study Student and District Services

Vermont home study (16 V.S.A. § 166b) removes the student from the enrolled public school population. The district's census-based special education funding is tied to enrolled students — your home study student is not counted in enrollment.

This is the core tension: the district's Act 173 funding was never calculated to include your child, yet federal law (IDEA) still imposes obligations toward home study students with disabilities.

Child Find: Federal IDEA requires every public school to identify, locate, and evaluate all children with suspected disabilities residing in the district — including private school students and home study students. This obligation doesn't depend on enrollment. If your home study child has a suspected disability, you can contact your supervisory union and request a Child Find evaluation. The district must respond.

Services after evaluation: Here's where it gets complicated. For enrolled students, the district must provide a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) — a full IEP with mandated services. For home study students who are parentally placed in home education (i.e., you chose to homeschool), the district's obligation is different. Under IDEA, the district must conduct a Child Find evaluation if requested, consult with parents of home study students with disabilities, and spend a proportionate share of federal IDEA Part B funds on services to parentally placed private/home school students.

"Proportionate share" is a small slice of IDEA funds relative to the total enrolled special needs population. In a rural Vermont district with limited resources, this may translate to minimal services.

What families can realistically request:

• Evaluation and assessment through the supervisory union (no cost to families)
• Speech therapy services — the most commonly provided service to home study students in Vermont
• Occupational therapy — less consistently provided; district discretion applies
• Access to specialized equipment or assistive technology — possible but not guaranteed

The key word throughout is "offer." The district must offer to evaluate. You can decline. The district must offer services; you can accept or decline. Accepting services does not require re-enrolling your child in public school.

The IPE vs. IEP Distinction

Vermont created the Individual Program of Education (IPE) as the documentation framework for home study students with disabilities. This is distinct from an IEP (Individualized Education Program), which is for enrolled public school students.

The IPE is a planning document you control. It is not a service contract with the district. If you accept district services through a Child Find process, those services would be documented separately. The IPE simply documents your child's educational plan within your home study program.

If you want to formalize your home study program's approach to your child's disability, the IPE is the tool. See Vermont homeschool special needs IPE form for the specific form and how to complete it.

Act 173 and Microschool Families

If you're running a microschool or pod under the home study statute, and you have neurodivergent learners in the pod, Act 173's impact is the same as for individual home study families: each child is registered under their own home study filing, each family has their own relationship with the district for any services.

One practical consideration: a microschool with multiple families may have a mix of students — some who receive district speech or OT services and some who don't. Scheduling the pod day around these outside appointments is part of running a multi-family microschool. Districts typically provide services at school buildings during school hours; you'll need to coordinate transportation and timing.

When Act 173 Matters Most for Your Decision

Act 173 matters most if you're deciding whether to homeschool a child who currently receives significant public school services and you're wondering whether you can replicate or supplement those services after leaving.

The honest answer: some services, like speech therapy, are often accessible through the district even for home study students. Intensive services — daily specialized reading instruction, full-time paraprofessional support, highly individualized behavioral intervention — are generally not available outside of enrollment.

The microschool or pod model can fill some of that gap by structuring the educational environment itself around the child's needs, hiring a specialist as a pod facilitator, and building in the frequency of intervention that a one-day-a-week district service can't provide. See Vermont microschool for neurodivergent kids for how that works in practice.

If you're navigating special education and home study in Vermont, the Vermont Family Network (vermontfamilynetwork.org) provides parent advocacy support and can help you understand your rights in the Child Find process. The Vermont Micro-School & Pod Kit at /us/vermont/microschool/ includes documentation templates for home study students with disabilities, including IPE frameworks and service coordination logs.

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