“Related services” means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services that are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education. [34 C.F.R. § 300.34(a)] Related services include: “speech-language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. Related services also include school health services and school nurse services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training. . . . Related services do not include a medical device that is surgically implanted, the optimization of that device’s functioning (e.g. mapping), maintenance of that device, or the replacement of that device.” [Id. at subsections (a) and (b)(1)]
The regulations that implement the IDEA do not identify adapted PE as a related service; however, special education is defined to mean “specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including – – (i) Instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and (ii) Instruction in physical education.” [34 C.F.R. § 300.39(a)(1)] (Emphasis added) If an eligible student needs adaptive PE in order to receive a free appropriate public education, as determined by the child’s IEP team, the school must make such service available.