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Letter 16: Declining to Excuse a Required IEP Team Member

When to Use It

Send this letter when the district asks you to sign a form excusing a required team member - the general education teacher, the special education teacher, the district representative, or the person who can interpret evaluation results (34 C.F.R. § 300.321(a)) - and you want that person in the room. The rule is built on your consent. If the member’s area will be discussed, excusal requires your informed written consent, plus the member’s written input before the meeting (34 C.F.R. § 300.321(e)(2)). Even if the member’s area will not be discussed, excusal requires your written agreement (34 C.F.R. § 300.321(e)(1)). You may simply decline, and you do not have to explain at length. Tool 49 covers the excusal form in full.

Declining is not obstruction. Asking that the reading teacher attend the meeting about reading goals is the system working as designed.

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