J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

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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Caution

Counseling at a Private School ...