The district will provide prior written notice to the parent of an eligible student or of a student referred for a special education evaluation whenever the district proposes or refuses to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, educational placement, or provision of a FAPE to the student. Prior written notices document the decisions made by the IEP team and evaluation group.

The prior written notice will include:

• A statement that the parents of a special education student have procedural safeguard protections and if a copy of the statement of procedural safeguards do not accompany the notice, a statement that describes how a copy of the statement of procedural safeguards may be obtained;
• A description of the action proposed or refused by the district;
• An explanation of why the district proposes or refuses to take the action and a description of other options that the district considered and the reasons why the options were rejected;
• A description of any other factors which are relevant to the district’s proposal or refusal;
• A description of each evaluation procedure, test, record or report the district used as a basis for the proposal or refusal;
• A description of any evaluation procedures the district proposes to conduct; and
• Sources for parents to contact to obtain assistance in understanding the procedural safeguards and the content of the prior written notice.

Prior written notice and the notice of procedural safeguards must be provided in the native language of the parent or other mode of communication used by the parent unless it is clearly not feasible to do so. If the native language or other mode of communication of the parent is not a written language, the district will take steps to ensure that the notice is translated orally or by other means to the parent. This may involve:

• Arranging for an interpreter if English is not the native language of the parent or if the parent has a hearing impairment; or
• Providing notice orally if the written language is not a native language

The district will document in writing how this information was provided and that the parent understands the content of the notice. The special services department will send the parent the prior written notice after an evaluation; the IEP case manager will send the parent the prior written notice for an IEP team decision.

*See the Special Education Terms & Definitions page for more information.

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