Related services are the support underneath special education: occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech, counseling, transportation, and others that help a child with a disability access and benefit from their education. They're not extras. Under IDEA, they're part of free appropriate public education, which means when they're included in your child's IEP, the school covers the cost.

Parents who use both school and private therapy often notice a difference in scope. The school speech-language pathologist focuses on classroom communication; the private therapist covers articulation, feeding, and social pragmatics. Those distinctions exist because school-based therapy is governed by a specific legal standard, and understanding that standard changes how you navigate both.

What Related Services Are

IDEA defines related services as developmental, corrective, and other supportive services required to help a child with a disability benefit from special education. The word "benefit" is doing a lot of work here. School-based therapy is tied to educational access: what does your child need in order to participate in their educational program? That's the frame.

The most commonly provided related services are:

• Speech-language pathology: addressing communication skills that affect participation and learning
• Occupational therapy: supporting fine motor, sensory processing, and daily living skills as they relate to the school environment
• Physical therapy: addressing gross motor needs affecting school access and participation
• Counseling: including psychological services for behavioral and social-emotional needs
• Transportation: including specialized transportation when a disability affects how a child can get to and from school
• Assistive technology services: evaluation, selection, and training for devices and tools that enable access
• Orientation and mobility: for students with visual impairments learning to navigate their environment
• Recreation and therapeutic recreation: when recreational activities are part of educational programming
• Social work services: connecting family, school, and community resources
• Parent counseling and training: so parents can support IEP goals at home

Most IEPs involve one or two of these. Children with more complex needs may have several. The IEP team determines which services are needed based on evaluation data and the child's individual profile.

How IEP Teams Determine Need

The evaluation comes first. Before a child receives related services, a multidisciplinary team conducts an assessment, typically including standardized tests, observations, and clinical judgment from the relevant specialist. That evaluation establishes whether the disability is affecting the child's ability to access their education and what support is needed.

The IEP team, which includes you as a parent, then decides which services to include, how often, and in what format. These decisions are based on what the evaluation shows and what the child needs to benefit from special education. They are not based on what's convenient for the school or what services happen to be staffed locally.

If you believe your child needs a related service the school hasn't evaluated, you can request that evaluation in writing. The school must either conduct the assessment or provide written notice explaining why they're declining, and that refusal can be challenged.

School-Based vs. Private Therapy: Two Different Purposes

This is where the most confusion lives. School-based OT, speech, and PT are scoped to educational access. A school OT evaluates how a child's sensory needs or fine motor skills affect their ability to complete schoolwork, participate in class, and manage daily routines in the school environment. A school speech-language pathologist focuses on communication as it supports learning and classroom participation.

Private therapy has a different scope. A private OT can address sensory processing, self-regulation, and functional skills across all environments: home, community, and school. A private speech therapist can pursue articulation goals, feeding therapy, augmentative communication, and social pragmatics without filtering for school function.

Both serve a real purpose. School therapy addresses what IDEA requires: the child's educational access. Private therapy addresses what the family wants for their child's broader development. They aren't in competition, and one doesn't replace the other. Plenty of families run both because they're answering different questions.

Services that fall outside educational access aren't covered as related services. If a child's medical or developmental needs don't connect to school function, those needs belong in private care.

How Service Is Delivered

Related services can be delivered a few different ways. Direct services, where the therapist works with the child, can happen in a pull-out setting, where the child leaves the classroom for a session, or in a push-in model, where the therapist comes into the classroom. Consultation is a third model, where the therapist advises the teacher and designs strategies without working directly with the child.

For some goals, consultation is appropriate and efficient. For others, it falls short of what a child needs. The IEP specifies the type, frequency, and duration of services, for example 30 minutes of direct speech-language services twice per week. If you believe the service model isn't working, you can request an IEP meeting to revisit it.

What to Ask at Your Child's Next IEP Meeting

If your child already receives related services, a few questions worth raising: Is the current frequency enough to make progress toward their goals? Is the delivery model, whether pull-out, push-in, or consultation, appropriate for what your child needs? Has the team evaluated all areas where your child may be struggling?

If your child doesn't currently receive a service you think they need, ask the team to conduct an evaluation in that area. Put it in writing. The school is required to respond, either by evaluating or by explaining why they won't.

School-based therapy works best when parents understand what it's designed to do. Once you're clear on that, you can use private therapy to cover what falls outside that scope and build a support plan that serves your child in every part of their life.