Family & Community Special Communities
Special Education

Parent's Notice of Procedural Safeguards

Under IDEA 2004 school districts must give this Notice once per year to all parents of eligible students with disabilities. The Department recommends that school districts identify a specific date each school year when the parents of every eligible student enrolled in the district, including those in out-of-district placements, will be sent a copy of the Notice. Districts may distribute the Notice by mail or, if the district makes information available electronically, the parent may choose that option.

In addition to the annual distribution of the Notice, school districts must give the Notice to parents when an initial evaluation of a student is requested by the parent or another person; upon the parent's request for a copy; and when a student with a disability is removed from his or her placement to an interim alternative education setting as a result of discipline.

The Notice is currently being translated into 16 languages and we will post them as soon as possible. Until the translations are completed, the translated versions of the Interim Notice or Parent's Rights Brochure will continue to be posted on the Department's Web site. A translation of the following note accompanies the translated versions of the Parent's Rights Brochure:

Please know that the federal special education law was reauthorized in 2004 and includes some additional rights for parents and students with disabilities that are not yet included in this Notice. If you have a dispute with the school district or want a hearing, or want more information about changes to requirements for student discipline, please be sure to ask the school to provide you with information about these changes.

If you are engaged in a dispute with or are taking disciplinary action against a student whose parents do not speak English, you should keep in mind that the parent has not received a full, translated version of the Parent's Notice of Procedural Safeguards. To ensure that parents whose primary language is not English have the information you are required by law to provide to them, you may need to obtain interpreters or prepare additional translated materials describing the changes to the rights of parents and students under IDEA-2004.

The Parent's Notice of Procedural Safeguards follows a question and answer format to provide information on the provisions in special education law that enable parents to be involved in educational decisions about their student. The electronic version of the Notice uses features that enable parents to find specific sections of the notice quickly through embedded hyperlinks. The electronic version of the notice also includes hyperlinks to additional useful information on the ESE Web site. The ESE hopes that the addition of these hyperlinks will make the Parent's Notice of Procedural Safeguards a useful document that will assist parents and school districts as they work together to provide special education and related services to students with disabilities.

Enclosure:    Parent's Notice of Procedural Safeguards

Last Updated: April 11, 2008