Schools and education, special: HSA Eligibility

What are special schools and education?

Special school and education is considered any sort of education, coaching or lessons that helps a child overcome a learning disability caused by mental or physical impairments. This would also include something like a nervous system disorder, visual blindness, hearing disabilities, or birth defects that might require remedial language training.

In each case, the expenses associated with treatment that helps to overcome a learning disability are eligible for reimbursement with a consumer-directed healthcare account so long as a medical professional has made a proper recommendation. This recommendation could apply to learning disability treatment lessons with, for example, a braille teacher, a lip reading teacher, or a remedial language teacher. The medical professional might also recommend the learning disabled child attend a special school where the principal reason for attendance is to overcome the learning disability (InsideSchools.org).

Some special schools may also offer other forms of education; if that's the case, then the other education must be incidental to the school's primary focus of overcoming a learning disability. Other medical expenses associated with school attendance are eligible for inclusion in a reimbursement. Those expenses might be costs of tuition, meals and lodging, for example.

Learning disability treatments must be recommended, by a medical professional, for the purpose of overcoming the learning disability, rather than alleviating behavioral issues or other types of education. If they are not recommended in this fashion, then the expenses associated with the treatment aren't eligible for reimbursement.