17.10 Schooling for the Mentally or Physically Disabled

You may include as medical expenses subject to the AGI floor (17.1) the costs of sending on a doctor’s recommendation a mentally or physically disabled dependent to a school or institution with special programs to overcome or alleviate his or her disability. Such costs may cover:

  • Teaching of Braille or lip reading
  • Training, caring for, supervising, and treating a mentally retarded person
  • Training for a child with dyslexia
  • Cost of meals and lodgings, if boarding is required at the school
  • Costs of regular education courses also taught at the school, provided they are incidental to the special courses and services provided to overcome the disability

The school must have professional staff competent to design and supervise a program for helping your dependent overcome his or her disability. The fact that a particular school or camp is recommended for an emotionally disturbed child by a psychiatrist will not qualify the tuition as a deduction if the school or camp has no special program geared to the child’s specific personal problem. The IRS allows a deduction for the costs of maintaining a mentally handicapped person in a home specially selected to meet the standards set by a psychiatrist to aid in an adjustment from life in a mental hospital to community living.

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image Caution
Counseling at a Private School
The parent of a child with psychological problems may deduct only that part of a private school fee directly related to psychological aid given to the child.
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Payment for future medical care expenses is deductible if immediate payment is required by contract.

EXAMPLES
1. An emotionally disturbed child was sent to a private school maintaining a staff of three psychologists. His father deducted the school fee of $6,270 as a medical expense. The IRS disallowed the amount, claiming that the child, who was neither mentally impaired nor handicapped, was sent to school primarily for an education. The Tax Court allowed the father to deduct $3,000 covering the psychological treatment.
2. A mentally handicapped boy had been excluded from several schools for the mentally handicapped because he needed close attention. The director of a military academy had extensive experience in training young boys. Although it was not the usual practice of the academy to enroll mentally handicapped children, the director accepted the boy on a day-to-day basis as a personal challenge. The Tax Court held that the cost of both tuition and transportation to bring the boy to and from the school were deductible medical expenses. The primary purpose of the training given the boy was not ordinary education but remedial training designed to overcome his handicap. But note that, in other cases, a deduction for tuition of a military school to which a child was sent in order to remove him from a tense family environment, and the cost of a blind boy’s attendance at a regular private school that made a special effort to accommodate his Braille equipment, were disallowed.
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