What Happens If You Move With an IEP?
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The Benefits of a Federal Law
The law behind special education, IDEA, is federal, not state-based. That has a lot of benefits for students and families. The biggest one is that, when a family moves, the IEP goes with the student. It doesn’t matter if the student is moving to a new district in the same state or to a new state, the IEP goes with the student.
Each district and/or state has its own special education forms. You can samples from a wide variety of states here. But the basic elements of the IEP are the same across all states and all districts. That means that, while the new district will have to transfer all of the IEP information onto its new forms, the student will remain eligible for special education services.
There are some caveats with this. The biggest is that the parent has to tell the new school about the IEP. The old district or state does not have a responsibility to find out where their student has moved to and send that information over– and the new school won’t automatically know about the IEP. If the parent doesn’t have the actual physical IEP, that is okay. The new school can get it from the old one– but they have to know that there is an IEP to get.
Moving with an IEP
Does the new district or state have to honor the old IEP?
The short answer is yes.
The longer is answer is that the old IEP is used at the new school until the new school holds an IEP meeting and puts the IEP content on its forms. Sometimes that can involve some changes in services because each district structures special education slightly different. The new district also might want to do new assessments to better understand how to support the student.
What IDEA says in 34 C.F.R. § 300.323:
(e) IEPs for children who transfer public agencies in the same State. If a child with a disability (who had an IEP that was in effect in a previous public agency in the same State) transfers to a new public agency in the same State, and enrolls in a new school within the same school year, the new public agency (in consultation with the parents) must provide FAPE to the child (including services comparable to those described in the child’s IEP from the previous public agency), until the new public agency either—
(1) Adopts the child’s IEP from the previous public agency; or
(2) Develops, adopts, and implements a new IEP that meets the applicable requirements in §§300.320 through 300.324.
(f) IEPs for children who transfer from another State. If a child with a disability (who had an IEP that was in effect in a previous public agency in another State) transfers to a public agency in a new State, and enrolls in a new school within the same school year, the new public agency (in consultation with the parents) must provide the child with FAPE (including services comparable to those described in the child’s IEP from the previous public agency), until the new public agency—
(1) Conducts an evaluation pursuant to §§300.304 through 300.306 (if determined to be necessary by the new public agency); and
(2) Develops, adopts, and implements a new IEP, if appropriate, that meets the applicable requirements in §§300.320 through 300.324.
What happens if the parent doesn't have a paper copy of the old IEP?
It’s awesome if the parent has the old IEP to give to the school but they do not have to. The new school district is responsible for reaching out to the old one for the student’s special education records.
What IDEA says in 34 C.F.R. § 300.323(g):
(g) Transmittal of records. To facilitate the transition for a child described in paragraphs (e) and (f) of this section—
(1) The new public agency in which the child enrolls must take reasonable steps to promptly obtain the child’s records, including the IEP and supporting documents and any other records relating to the provision of special education or related services to the child, from the previous public agency in which the child was enrolled, pursuant to 34 CFR 99.31(a)(2); and
(2) The previous public agency in which the child was enrolled must take reasonable steps to promptly respond to the request from the new public agency.
How long does a district have to hold an IEP meeting?
While IDEA loves a good timeline, there is none in IDEA about how long the new school has to hold an IEP. The law is clear that the student needs to be served right away. It is more flexible on how long it takes the new school to get the IEP updated. However, most states have decided that it should be done within 30 days.
Do services change when a student moves?
In theory, services shouldn’t change when a student moves. A student needs what they need. In practice, they often do. Bigger districts often have more resources. For example, most big districts have adaptive physical education teachers. Most small ones don’t. Therefore, you are likely to see APE services on the IEPs of students coming from big districts and not on the IEPs of students come from small ones. Sometimes the district will try to update those services to reflect what they offer. If you are a parent and the new district is trying to take away a service you want, fight it. They need your consent to do so.
