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Hearing Letter 20: Five-Business-Day Disclosure Cover Letter

When to Use It

Send this cover letter with your exhibits and witness list to every other party in an ordinary due process hearing, timed so the disclosure arrives at least 5 business days before the hearing. Send a copy to the hearing officer only if the scheduling order or the officer’s directions require it. Each party may prohibit evidence whose substance was not timely disclosed, and each side must disclose completed evaluations and the recommendations it intends to use (8 NYCRR § 200.5(j)(3)(xii), (xii)(a); 34 C.F.R. § 300.512(a)(3), (b)). Disclose fully and on time.

This is the ordinary-case disclosure, and it is not the expedited-hearing cover letter from Volume I’s H-Letter 7. Count 5 business days back from the hearing date. Make the number of exhibits agree in the letter, on the index, and in the enclosures, and mark every evaluation on the index so the recommendation-disclosure requirement is clear. New York’s rule does not state a separate expert-report deadline, but an impartial hearing officer may impose additional scheduling requirements that must be followed.

Send it to: the district’s representative or attorney of record and every other party. Copy the impartial hearing officer only if the scheduling order or the officer’s directions require it.