Prior written notice means that the school district must notify you in writing whenever initiating or changing an educational placement, performing evaluations or refusing to make to changes to the student's current placement or educational program. It must provide a description of what it will or will not provide and what was considered when making that decision. Safeguards and resources that will be beneficial in understanding the decision are also included.
As parents to a student in special education, you must give written parental consent. Initially, the consent is for an evaluation to determine whether the student is eligible for special education services. Consent is also necessary to provide or discontinue services, along with re-evaluations. At anytime, you as the parent have the right to revoke your consent in order to discontinue those services. If you make that choice, however, it will not be considered that the school district is failing to provide a free and appropriate education while an appropriate decision is worked toward.
The school should provide all information in the language that is most comfortable for the parent. If written communication is not possible, the school must provide oral translations of all required documents.
Although the school must provide requested evaluations, you have the right to have your child evaluated by an independent evaluator who will either confirm or negate the school district's findings. Information on professionals available to provide these services should be easily available. You can pay for this privately or at the expense of the school district if it is found that the initial evaluation warrants another look. If a disagreement is found, it might be necessary to have a hearing to determine which evaluation should determine the services required for the student.
Ideally, through collaboration between your child's teachers, other support personnel and you, it will be possible to come to a common decision on what your child's educational plan should look like. Because this does not always happen, however, you have the right to file for a due process hearing. This is a legal way to appeal choices made by the school district and usually a last resort.