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Letter 38: New-District Records and Intake Letter After a Move

When to Use It

Send this letter the week you move - the day you enroll, or sooner if you know the enrollment date. A child who transfers with a current IEP does not start over. The new district must provide services comparable to the old IEP right away, in consultation with you, while it decides what comes next (34 C.F.R. § 300.323(e)-(f)). It must also take reasonable steps to promptly obtain your child’s records, and the old district must take reasonable steps to promptly send them (34 C.F.R. § 300.323(g)). One limit: the comparable-services rule applies when your child enrolls during the school year. If you move over the summer, the new district must instead have an IEP in effect for your child when the school year starts (34 C.F.R. § 300.323(a)). Either way, send the letter; the records duty and the paper record do not wait. Tool 78 covers what transfers in a move and what does not.

Send it to: the new district’s director of special education, with copies to the new district’s enrollment office and the former district’s special education office. Attach the current IEP. Email with a read receipt; add certified mail if services do not start promptly.