What is a Free Appropriate Public Education?

There are many legal terms and accompanying acronyms that you will hear in the special education field. However, there is none more important to the special education philosophy than a "free appropriate public education" or "FAPE."

Who is Entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education?

While a free appropriate public education may sound like a right that is already provided to all children in the United States, it is not. All children may be entitled to a free public education but the rights to a free appropriate public education are specifically conferred on special education students by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Students who qualify for special education and are between the ages of 3 and 21 are entitled to a free appropriate public education as long as they have not yet graduated from high school. This includes students who may have been properly suspended or expelled pursuant to the school's disciplinary procedures.

What is a Free Appropriate Public Education?

The free part of a Free Appropriate Public Education is self explanatory. All education services need to be provided by the public school district to the student with no cost to the parent or family, other than costs that all families are required to pay. For example, it would be permissible to charge special education students the same fee as general education students are charged to participate in extracurricular sports. However, it would not be permissible to charge special education students fees to participate in physical therapy or adaptive physical education.

The public education part is also easy to understand. It means that the child must be educated at public expense regardless of the extent of his or her disabilities.

The term that needs defining is the word appropriate. An appropriate education is one that is designed to meet the unique needs of an individual student and that is reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits.

The United States Supreme Court considered what a school district must do to complete its obligations pursuant to the free appropriate public education standard. In United States v. Rowley, the Court set forth a two part test that the district must satisfy with regard to FAPE. Specifically, the district must comply with the procedural requirements set forth in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and develop an IEP that is reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits.

The Supreme Court has been clear that a free appropriate public education does not entitle a student to the best possible education that money can buy nor does it require districts to maximize the potential of special education students.

In 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was reauthorized. The law ties FAPE to a student's success in meeting the grade level standards of the State Department of Education.

Other laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act provide educational rights to students. However, a free appropriate public education, as defined by IDEA and related court cases, is a right that applies to special education students and one that is meant to provide each special education student with an equal right to a public education.