Letter builder

Ten letters, each built around one thing schools respond to: a dated written record with the rule it relies on attached. Pick the situation you are in.

• Request an evaluation

  You think your child may need special education and nobody has offered to test.

  Starts the legal clock. From the day the district receives your consent it has a fixed number of days to complete the evaluation, and it must respond in writing either way.

  34 CFR §300.301(b)

• Request an independent evaluation

  The district evaluated your child and you disagree with the result.

  The district must either pay for an independent evaluation or file for a due process hearing to defend its own. It is not allowed to simply say no and stop there.

  34 CFR §300.502(b)

• Request an IEP meeting

  Something has changed, or the current plan is not working, and you want the team back at the table.

  A parent may request a meeting at any time. The district must consider the request, and if it refuses it must give you prior written notice explaining why.

  34 CFR §300.324(b)

• Request your child’s records

  Before a meeting, before a dispute, or any time you suspect there is more in the file than you have seen.

  The district must let you inspect and review the records without unnecessary delay — and always before any IEP meeting or hearing, and in no case more than 45 days after the request.

  34 CFR §300.613(a)

• Ask for prior written notice

  The school said no to something, and said it out loud rather than in writing.

  Forces the refusal onto paper, with the reasons and the options considered and rejected. Verbal refusals disappear; a written one is reviewable — and often gets reconsidered before it is ever sent.

  34 CFR §300.503

• Consent with exceptions

  You agree with most of an IEP but not all of it, and you are being asked to sign.

  Lets the parts you agree with start immediately while keeping your objection on the record. Signing without this is often later treated as agreement to the whole thing.

  34 CFR §300.300(d)

• Ask for the data behind a progress report

  A progress report says "making sufficient progress" and you have no idea what that is based on.

  Turns a checkbox into a number. Federal law requires periodic reports on progress toward each annual goal — a rating with no data behind it does not satisfy that.

  34 CFR §300.320(a)(3)

• Request a 504 plan

  Your child has a condition that limits a major life activity but may not qualify for an IEP.

  Opens a separate eligibility process under a civil rights law with much broader coverage than IDEA — including conditions like ADHD, diabetes, anxiety, allergies and chronic illness.

  34 CFR §104.35

• Request extended school year

  Your child loses ground over long breaks and takes months to recover it.

  Puts the question formally in front of the team. Extended school year cannot be limited to certain disabilities, offered only as a fixed programme, or denied because the district does not usually run one.

  34 CFR §300.106

• Follow up on no response

  You sent a request and heard nothing.

  Restates the original request, fixes the date it was made, and makes clear that the clock has been running since then. Short letters work better here than long ones.

  34 CFR §300.503

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