My Learning Source Michigan › Homeschooling in Michigan › Special needs

🧩 Special Needs & Special Education Homeschooling in Michigan

What Michigan offers homeschool families of children with disabilities or learning differences — special-needs scholarships, evaluations and services — from our Michigan guide and articles.

Homeschooling in Michigan: the basics

Special education: a homeschooled child doesn't get an IEP but may receive some services, such as speech therapy, through a Nonpublic School Services Plan. The public district where the child lives handles evaluation through Child Find. Services are set through consultation and limited by the share of special education funds districts must set aside for nonpublic students, so they may be less than a public school student would get. MDE's guidance says to register with MDE first.

Read the full section in our Michigan guide

Special education for home school students

Registering first: the House Fiscal Agency reported in 2017 that, according to MDE, annual reporting by home school families is voluntary except when a homeschooled student is requesting eligible special education services from the local public school or intermediate school district (ISD). MDE's current guidance, described above, still ties services to registering with MDE. Register before you ask for services.

Evaluations: Michigan's special education rules (MARSE) set timelines for a student whose parents have placed them in a private school. After your written request for an initial evaluation, the district has 10 school days to give you written notice and, when appropriate, ask for your written consent. Within 30 school days of receiving your consent, it must decide eligibility and give you notice. You and the district can agree to extend this, but only in writing and measured in school days. The rule also requires the district to follow the federal rules for private school children, 34 CFR 300.130 to 300.147 (R 340.1721b(2)). Ask your district whether it applies these timelines to your registered home school.

IEPs vs services plans: if you enroll your child in public school, the district must, after your consent, give notice of an offer of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) or of ineligibility within 30 school days. It must then start the IEP as soon as possible and within 15 school days of your written consent to services, unless the IEP clearly names a later date you both agreed to (R 340.1721b(1)). For a home school student, MDE's services plan, described in the basics section above, takes the place of an IEP.

Auxiliary services: Michigan law says a district that provides auxiliary services to its resident pupils must provide the same services on an equal basis to pupils at nonpublic schools. The list includes health and nursing services, speech and language services, school social work, school psychological services, remedial reading, and teacher consultant and other ancillary services for students with a disability (MCL 380.1296). The statute speaks of nonpublic schools and doesn't mention home schools, so ask your district whether it treats your MDE-registered home school as a nonpublic school for these services.

Shared time: Michigan's shared-time law covers only nonessential elective courses, and it doesn't mention special education or services for students with disabilities (MCL 388.1766b). If your child has a disability and takes shared-time classes, ask the district in writing which supports it will provide in those classes and whether any other services are available.

Which home schools count: Michigan law lets a parent teaching at home use exemption (a), the state-approved nonpublic school route, exemption (f), or both (MCL 380.1561(4)). A Muskegon Area ISD handout reprints MDE's July 1996 questions and answers, which say a home school operating solely under exemption (a) and following the Nonpublic School Act is considered a nonpublic school, and one operating solely under exemption (f) is not. Montcalm Area ISD's home school information says students operating solely under exemption (f) are not entitled to auxiliary and special education services, but may be tested for special needs at the local public school district. Kent ISD says its services to nonpublic schools include registered home schools. These are ISD statements, not state rules, so ask your district and ISD how they treat your home school.

Child find: federal rules require each district to locate, identify and evaluate children with disabilities whose parents enrolled them in private schools in the district, using activities similar to those it uses for public school children (34 CFR 300.131). The process must be finished in a time comparable to that for public school students, and the cost of evaluations can't be counted toward the money the district must spend on private school children. Marquette-Alger RESA's ISD plan (approved October 14, 2025) lists home-schooled children among those its districts' child find policies must cover. It says the district where the nonpublic school is located has the child find duty for nonpublic students, including registered homeschools.

No individual right: under federal rules, a child placed in a private school by the parents has no individual right to receive some or all of the special education and related services the child would get in public school (34 CFR 300.137(a)). The child may receive a different amount of services than children with disabilities in public schools (34 CFR 300.138(a)(2)). The district makes the final decisions about which services it will provide (34 CFR 300.137(b)(2)).

The services plan: for each private school child the district designates to receive services, it must have a services plan that describes the specific special education and related services the district will provide (34 CFR 300.132(b), 300.138(b)). The district must start and run the meetings to develop, review and revise the plan (34 CFR 300.137(c)). To the extent appropriate, the plan meets the IEP content rules and is developed and revised the way an IEP is (34 CFR 300.138(b)(2)). Services are provided by public agency employees or by people the agency contracts with, and services and materials must be secular, neutral and nonideological (34 CFR 300.138(c)).

Consultation and funding: districts must consult with private school representatives and with representatives of parents of these children about child find, the proportionate share of federal funds, and how, where and by whom services will be provided, including how services will be divided if funds can't serve every child (34 CFR 300.134). Each district counts these children on a date between October 1 and December 1, and that count sets what it must spend on them in the next fiscal year (34 CFR 300.133(c)). Michigan's auxiliary services rules also require a district that provides those services to tell each nonpublic school in writing, by April 1, what services are in its proposed budget. The nonpublic school answers in writing within 30 days, and the district confirms by August 1 (R 340.293). Ask your district whether it includes registered home school families in these meetings and notices.

Where services happen: federal rules allow services on the premises of a private school, to the extent consistent with law (34 CFR 300.139(a)). If your child needs transportation to benefit from or take part in services at another site, the district must provide it from the child's school or home to that site, and back to the school or home. It doesn't have to provide transportation from home to the private school (34 CFR 300.139(b)). Michigan's auxiliary services rules say services on an equal basis are made available at the nonpublic school during the regular public school day (R 340.291(c)). None of these rules mention home schools, so ask where services will be delivered and whether transportation is included before you agree to the plan.

If you disagree: under federal rules, due process hearings don't apply to complaints that a district failed to provide private school services, including the services in a services plan (34 CFR 300.140(a)). They do apply to child find complaints, including evaluations. Those are filed with the district where the private school is located, with a copy sent to the state (34 CFR 300.140(b)). Other complaints about private school services go through the state complaint process (34 CFR 300.140(c)). In Michigan, you file a state complaint with MDE's Office of Special Education within 1 year of the alleged violation, and deliver it to that office and the district by mail, in person or electronically (R 340.1851).

IEP or services plan: Charlevoix-Emmet ISD tells parents to contact their local school administrator to schedule an evaluation. Once the evaluation is done, an IEP is offered, and parents of registered nonpublic and home schools who decline an IEP may be offered a Nonpublic Service Plan to see whether services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, social work or a teacher consultant are appropriate. Kent ISD says an eligible nonpublic student who lives in the district gets an offer of an IEP or a service plan from the resident public district, and nonpublic preschool students are served by the resident district.

Read the full section in our Michigan guide

Articles for Michigan families

Room to Create: Art for Homeschool Families and Co-ops
Some children approach a blank page with a plan. Others need time to explore the materials, watch someone else, or try a few things before they begin. At The Art Experience in Pontiac, there’s room…

Official sources

Summarized from our Michigan guide (as of October 2026) and articles. Rules change — confirm on the official pages before you act.

More for Michigan homeschool families

Loading the full Michigan site… If it does not appear, everything on this page is readable above.