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Letter 27: Disagreement with a Proposed Change of Placement

When to Use It

Send this letter when the district proposes to move your child to a different placement - a more restrictive classroom, a different school, fewer hours in general education - and you disagree. Send it promptly, before any stated implementation date. You are a required member of any group that decides your child’s placement (34 C.F.R. § 300.501(c)). The district also owes you prior written notice of any proposed change (34 C.F.R. § 300.503; Tool 26).

Send it to: the director of special education. Copy the principal and your child’s case manager.

One caveat, stated plainly. This letter puts your disagreement on the record and asks the district to hold still. It does not, by itself, freeze your child’s placement. The stay-put protection - your child remains in the current educational placement while proceedings are pending (34 C.F.R. § 300.518) - is triggered by filing a due process complaint, not by sending a letter. Tools 92 and 93 cover that decision.