Special education & the EFA

Arkansas EFA and Your Child’s IEP: What Families Give Up and Gain

Updated for the 2026-27 school year · Last reviewed July 27, 2026

The honest summary

Taking the Arkansas EFA is a real trade for a child with an IEP. You give up the automatic special education services your public school district delivers — the EFA Family Handbook says so plainly, and private schools are not required to implement an IEP. You gain control of roughly $7,208 in 2026-27 funds (per SchoolChoiceAR) that can pay for private tutoring, therapies, and specialized services you choose. Neither half of that sentence should be softened. This page walks through both.

Families of children with disabilities are not a small corner of this program. According to the Arkansas Department of Education’s 2024-25 annual report, 36% of EFA participants that year were IDEA-identified students with disabilities. The state clearly expects families like yours to use the EFA — and Arkansas law clearly requires that you be told what changes when you do.

We work with special-needs families every day, and our strong opinion is that this decision goes badly only when it is made on incomplete information. So here is the complete version: the legal mechanics, what actually stops, what the money can rebuild, and the questions worth asking before you sign anything.

The legal switch: “parental placement”

Arkansas law is unusually explicit here. Under Ark. Code Ann. § 6-18-2508, ADE must notify the parents of IDEA-identified students that EFA participation “is a parental placement under 20 U.S.C. § 1412.” That short phrase carries the whole tradeoff, so it is worth unpacking.

Under the federal IDEA, a child enrolled in public school with an IEP has an individual entitlement to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) — the district is legally obligated to deliver the services written into the IEP. A child whose parents place them in private school sits in a different legal category: parentally placed private school students. In general, parentally placed students do not carry an individual entitlement to FAPE with them. Districts have a different, more limited set of obligations to this group — often described as “equitable services” — and equitable services are not the same thing as an implemented IEP. What any individual parentally placed child receives can vary, and no particular service is guaranteed to your child.

We are deliberately not promising specifics about what your district will or won’t offer a parentally placed student, because it genuinely varies. The right move is to ask your district, in writing, what would be available to your child as a parentally placed student — before you decide, not after.

What the handbook says, verbatim in substance

The EFA Family Handbook tells families that by using an EFA and leaving the public system, your child will no longer automatically receive special education services from the public school district. And it is equally important to absorb the second half: private schools are not required to implement an IEP. A private school may choose to accommodate your child — many do — but it is a choice, not an obligation.

What families give up

Automatic delivery of IEP services. The speech sessions, resource-room minutes, para support, and related services your district delivers under the IEP stop being an entitlement when your child leaves the public system on an EFA.
The district’s legal obligation to implement the plan. In public school, if services in the IEP aren’t delivered, you have a formal process to enforce them. A private school has no obligation to implement the IEP at all, so there is nothing equivalent to enforce against it.
Certainty. As a parentally placed student, what your child receives from the district — if anything — is not individually guaranteed. You move from a rights framework to a resources framework: what you can arrange and fund.

What families gain

Funds you direct. The EFA award is $7,208 for 2026-27 ($1,802 per quarter), per SchoolChoiceAR — ADE’s 2026-27 handbook hasn’t published yet, so treat that as the working figure. Funds roll over up to $8,500.
A higher award for former Succeed students. Students who previously used the Succeed Scholarship receive 100% of foundation funding instead of 90% — $8,162 for 2026-27 per SchoolChoiceAR.
Priority in processing. Students with disabilities sit in priority tier 2 of the application order for 2026-27, behind only returning EFA students.
A statutory path to rebuild services privately. Beyond ordinary tutoring (§ 6-18-2503(11)(B)(ii)), the law has a dedicated category for students with disabilities: § 6-18-2503(11)(B)(vii) covers educational services provided by a licensed or accredited practitioner or participating service provider to a participating student with a disability. The handbook describes this as speech therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral therapy, or other specialized educational services by licensed providers.
Choice of provider. Instead of the specialist the district assigns, you pick the tutor or therapist — and pay them through ClassWallet Direct Pay with nothing out of pocket. See using your EFA for tutoring and how ClassWallet payments work.

Rebuilding the IEP’s function, privately

An IEP is really three things: specialized instruction, related services, and a written plan with goals. Nothing replaces the legal entitlement — be clear-eyed about that — but each function can be rebuilt with EFA funds through approved providers:

Specialized instruction → private tutoring with a specialist matched to the disability — for example dyslexia tutoring, autism tutoring, ADHD tutoring, or twice-exceptional support.
Related services → licensed speech, occupational, or behavioral therapists who become approved EFA providers, under the § 6-18-2503(11)(B)(vii) category.
The plan itself → a private learning plan with measurable goals, which a good provider should write and review with you. This is exactly what our team does — our tutors are certified special education tutors, and building goal-based plans is the core of the work.

Disability evaluations (for example, a dyslexia evaluation) are also a covered expense category, which matters if your child’s last evaluation is outdated or was never done privately. More on that in paying for dyslexia help with your EFA.

Questions to ask before you decide

Bring these to the private school, your district, and any provider you are considering:

To the private school: Will you provide any of the accommodations or services in my child’s current IEP — and will you put what you’ll actually do in writing? Who on staff has special education training?
To the private school: What happens if my child struggles — what is your process before asking a student to leave?
To your district: What, if anything, is available to my child as a parentally placed private school student? What is the process if we later re-enroll?
To yourself: Which IEP services actually move the needle for my child — and can I realistically replace those specific services with EFA funds plus our own budget?
To any provider: Are you an ADE-approved EFA provider set up in ClassWallet? What are your tutors’ credentials in special education specifically? (How to check the answers yourself is covered in finding and verifying EFA-approved tutors.)
To ADE (501-683-1876 or ade.efa@ade.arkansas.gov): Anything you are unsure about — pre-approval questions for specific expenses go here.

If it doesn’t work out: returning to public school

This decision is serious, but it is not irreversible. A child can re-enroll in public school — public schools serve all resident students. If your child returns, plan on working with the district to re-establish special education services; how quickly services resume and whether new evaluations are needed are district-level processes we won’t promise specifics about here.

The practical advice: before you leave, ask your district how re-entry works, and keep copies of the current IEP, evaluations, and progress data. Good records make any future transition — in either direction — faster and less contentious.

Talk it through before you decide

We are an ADE-approved EFA provider, and we will tell you honestly if the EFA is the wrong move for your child — sometimes it is. Book a free consultation and bring the IEP; we’ll walk through which services it contains and what a private replacement plan would realistically look like. You can also read who we are first.

Frequently asked questions

Does my child keep their IEP if we take the Arkansas EFA?

The IEP document does not vanish, but its power changes. Arkansas law (§ 6-18-2508) requires ADE to notify parents that EFA participation is a parental placement under 20 U.S.C. § 1412, and the EFA Family Handbook states that by using an EFA and leaving the public system, your child will no longer automatically receive special education services from the public school district. Private schools are not required to implement an IEP.

Is a private school required to follow my child’s IEP?

No. Private schools are not required to implement an IEP. Some private schools voluntarily provide accommodations or specialized instruction, but that is a school-by-school decision you should confirm in writing before enrolling — it is not a legal obligation the way it is in public school.

What does “parental placement” mean for special education rights?

When a family uses an EFA, Arkansas law treats it as a parental placement under 20 U.S.C. § 1412 — the federal IDEA provision covering students whose parents place them in private school. In general, parentally placed students do not have an individual entitlement to the free appropriate public education (FAPE) that an enrolled public school student has. Districts have more limited “equitable services” obligations that work differently, and what any individual child receives can vary. Ask your district directly what, if anything, would be available to your child.

Do students with disabilities get priority for the Arkansas EFA?

Yes. In the 2026-27 priority processing order, students with specialized needs — including students with disabilities — are priority tier 2, right after returning EFA students. Former Succeed Scholarship students also receive a higher award: 100% of foundation funding instead of 90%, which is $8,162 for 2026-27 per SchoolChoiceAR (confirm in the ADE handbook when it publishes).

Can EFA funds pay for the services my child would lose?

That is the design. Arkansas law includes a dedicated qualifying-expense category (§ 6-18-2503(11)(B)(vii)) for educational services provided by a licensed or accredited practitioner or participating service provider to a student with a disability. The handbook describes this as covering speech therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral therapy, or other specialized educational services by licensed providers. Private tutoring is a separate statutory qualifying expense as well.

Can my child go back to public school later?

Yes. A child can re-enroll in public school, and public schools serve all resident students. If your child returns, expect to work with the district on re-establishing services — timelines and evaluation steps are district processes, so talk to your local district about how re-entry would work before you rely on it as a fallback plan.