How to ask your school for an IEP evaluation, in writing
This letter asks the district to evaluate your child for special education, and it turns a hallway conversation into a dated request in somebody’s inbox. Any parent can send it at any point in the year, without a diagnosis, a doctor’s note, or the school agreeing first. You can send it today: paste it into an email, replace what sits in brackets, and write down the day the school received it; the table below says which day starts each clock.
What the rule says
“… either a parent of a child or a public agency may initiate a request for an initial evaluation to determine if the child is a child with a disability.”
34 CFR 300.301(b)
Nobody at the school decides whether your concern has earned a referral. The referral is yours to make.
When to send it
- A teacher has raised the same concern twice and the answer each time was more classroom support.
- Your child sits in an intervention group or a behavior plan and nothing has moved since the fall.
- An outside evaluator has named something and the school filed the report as information rather than a referral.
What happens after you send it
| What is being counted | By when | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| The district answers | Set by your state | IDEA sets no number here, so the days between your email and the answer are your state’s.34 CFR 300.503(a) |
| Evaluation finished | 60 days | Counted from the day you sign consent, and replaced by a state timeframe where one exists.34 CFR 300.301(c)(1) |
| First IEP meeting | 30 days | It starts at the determination that your child needs special education, which lands after the report.34 CFR 300.323(c)(1) |
What the letter has to contain
A request, in those words
A district can log “a parent was concerned” and move on. A dated request is an event.
IDEA lets a parent initiate the request for an initial evaluation. 34 CFR 300.301(b)
The areas you suspect
Whatever you name is what gets tested. Leave the list out and somebody else picks it.
The child must be assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability. 34 CFR 300.304(c)(4)
Three dated things you have seen
Dates turn a worry into a pattern, and a pattern is what an evaluator looks for.
The evaluation gathers information the parent provides alongside the school’s own. 34 CFR 300.304(b)(1)
A consent form, or a refusal
A district that goes quiet has handed you nothing to challenge. Either document arrives on paper.
A refusal to evaluate is an action that requires prior written notice. 34 CFR 300.503(a)(1)
The letter
Replace everything in brackets. The rest sends as it stands.
- To
- The principal, and the district’s director of special education
- Subject
- Request for an initial special education evaluation — [Child’s full name], [Grade], [School]
Dear [Principal] and [Director of Special Education], I am requesting an initial evaluation for my child, [Child’s full name], [Grade] at [School name], to determine whether [he/she/they] is eligible for special education. I consent to it now. Please cover [suspected areas — for example: reading, written expression, attention, speech and language, motor skills, behavior]. Here is what I have seen, and what the school has recorded: • [Date] — [what happened, in one line] • [Date] — [what happened, in one line] • [Date] — [what I was told, and by whom] Please send me the consent form to sign. If the district decides against evaluating, please send that as prior written notice under 34 CFR 300.503, with the records behind it. I am attaching [work samples, report cards, or teacher emails]. Thank you, [Your name] [Phone] · [Email] [Today’s date]
If no answer comes back
Give it the count your state sets, from the day the email landed, then follow up in writing.
- Reply on the original email so the send date and the silence sit together.
- Name the day the district received it and ask what stage the referral reached.
- Copy the state office that takes special education complaints, and keep the thread as your record.
A no owes you prior written notice: the decision, the reason for it, and the records behind it (34 CFR 300.503).
This is a template, not legal advice: it does not replace your state’s procedures, or advice from someone qualified to read your file.
Have the pages you are writing about read back to you, free.
The review reads every page you upload, names the wording that is vague or missing, and gives you its page number.
Review my IEP — freeFree, no card. It reads your pages and contacts no one.
Where this comes from
- Initial evaluations (34 CFR 300.301)The words quoted above.
- Evaluation procedures (34 CFR 300.304)What the testing covers.
- Center for Parent Information and Resources: evaluationHow the process runs afterward.
- Prior written notice (34 CFR 300.503)What a no owes you.
Response deadlines are set state by state, and the state pages carry each number with its rule.