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Letter 29: Request for a Classroom Observation

When to Use It

Send this letter when you or your expert needs to see your child’s classroom - or a proposed one - before you can take a position. Common occasions: before an IEP meeting, before agreeing to a placement change, or during an independent educational evaluation (IEE). Federal special-education law makes you a participant in decisions about your child (34 C.F.R. §§ 300.322, 300.501). It does not grant a general right to sit in a classroom. Access rules come from district policy and state law, and they vary widely.

Federal law does not create a general parent observation right. An independent evaluator may nevertheless need classroom access when observation is required for the IEE. A public agency may not apply criteria that prevent the evaluator from completing the IEE; for a publicly funded IEE, applicable criteria must be the same as the agency’s criteria to the extent consistent with the parent’s IEE right (34 C.F.R. § 300.502(e)(1); OSEP, Letter to Mamas 2 (May 26, 2004); OSEP, Letter to Savit 2 (Feb. 10, 2014)).

Send it to: the principal, with a copy to the director of special education.