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Letter 14: Request for an Interpreter or Meeting-Access Accommodation

When to Use It

Send this letter as soon as an IEP meeting is scheduled, if you need an interpreter or another accommodation to understand and take part. The regulation is direct: the district “must take whatever action is necessary” to ensure you understand the proceedings, “including arranging for an interpreter” for parents who are deaf or whose native language is not English (34 C.F.R. § 300.322(e)). Required written notices must also come in your native language, unless that is clearly not feasible (34 C.F.R. § 300.503(c)).

This is not a favor you are asking. A meeting you cannot understand is a meeting you were not really at.

Send it to: the person who scheduled the meeting, with a copy to the director of special education. Send it well before the meeting date - arranging an interpreter takes the district time. Email with a delivery or read receipt; keep a copy.