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Letter 15: Notice of Intent to Record the IEP Meeting

When to Use It

Send this letter several days before an IEP meeting you plan to record. The purpose is accuracy, not hostility: a recording lets you listen instead of scribbling, and it settles later disagreements about who said what. Frame it that way, because that is the truth.

Know the ground first. No federal regulation gives or denies parents a general right to record an IEP meeting. State law and district policy matter. Department commentary and later OSEP informal guidance say that a policy limiting or prohibiting recording must allow an exception when necessary for a parent to understand the IEP or the IEP process, or to exercise another Part B right (64 Fed. Reg. 12,406, 12,477 (Mar. 12, 1999); OSEP, Letter to Savit 2 (Feb. 10, 2014)). Never record secretly. State consent laws apply, and a hidden recording may be unlawful.

Send it to: the person who scheduled the meeting, with a copy to the director of special education. Email with a delivery or read receipt; keep a copy.