Can my child receive physical therapy instead of PE in school?

If your child receives physical therapy as a related service in their IEP, you may wonder if their PT can replace PE.

Depending on your state, PE may be required. For example, in California, middle school PE is required by law; schools must provide at least 400 minutes of physical education every 10 school days for students in grades 7-12. A child with an IEP should be attending PE and participating with the other children. If the school cannot work out how your child can participate, you can request an ecological participation report so that an expert (an adaptive PE or APE teacher) can figure out how to include your child. If you don’t want APE, you can just decline the service in your child's IEP, but PE is required unless you have a medical note.

If your child needs PT (different from APE), that could be a pull-out service during PE. You could talk to your team about writing in the IEP that pull-out services will only happen at that time.

If your child doesn't currently have PT in their IEP, you can ask your team for a PT assessment to determine need.