1. A Notice of Intention to Seek Review (Form A /Form A)
To begin the process of initiating your appeal, you must prepare a Notice of Intention to Seek Review and serve it on the opposing party. If you are the parent, that means you will serve it upon the Board of Education of the school district no later than 25 calendar days after the date of the decision of the impartial hearing officer you are requesting be reviewed. It is important that you as a parent provide notice to the district of your intent to seek review, so the District can send the hearing record to the Office of State Review. If you do not send a notice of intention to the district, or send it late, there may be delays in processing your case. The Notice of Intention to Seek Review is not the Request for Review itself. It is the first of several documents that must be prepared to appeal an IHO's decision.
2. A Case Information Statement (Form A / Form A)
You must complete a Case Information Statement along with your Notice of Intention to Seek Review. You may combine the Case Information Statement with the Notice of Intention to Seek Review into a single document. The Case Information Statement identifies the type of issues that you plan to ask a State Review Officer to review. The Case Information Statement is not the Request for Review itself, and you are not limited to the issues identified on the Case Information Statement and can raise additional issues in your Request for Review. However, any issue not identified in your Request for Review will be considered abandoned and will not be addressed by a State Review Officer.
3. How to Serve the Notice of Intention to Seek Review
After the Notice of Intention to Seek Review and Case Information Statements are prepared, copies of both forms must be hand-delivered to the opposing party. If you are the parent, that means you must hand-deliver the Notice upon the school district no later than 25 calendar days after the date of the decision of the impartial hearing officer. This service must be to the school district clerk, any trustee or member of the Board of Education, the superintendent of schools, or a person in the superintendent's office who has been designated by the Board to accept service. You will also file the Notice of Intention to Seek Review with the Office of State Review, but only after you have completed several additional documents and steps to initiate the appeal, such as preparing and serving your Request for Review.
4. Parent as Respondent and Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal (Form C/ Form C)
If you are a parent and have already been served by the district with a Notice of Intention to Seek Review, and you would also like a portion of the impartial hearing officer's decision to be changed or reversed by the State Review Officer, you will most likely be the Respondent in the case and must prepare a Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal and Case Information Statement. If you are the Respondent, then you should examine Section II and Section III of this parent guide. The Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal must be served on the school district in the same manner as described above in paragraph number 3 above, no later than 30 calendar days after the date of the impartial hearing officer's decision.
If the school district has not served you with the Notice of Intention to Seek Review and you wish to challenge the IHO's decision, continue with the instructions below.
5. Failure to Serve a Notice of Intention to Seek Review /Case Information Statement
If you fail to serve a Notice of Intention to Seek Review/Case Information Statement upon the school district within the 25-day timeline, it does not automatically bar your appeal. You should still proceed with preparing and serving your Request for Review within the time limits and the State Review Officer will decide whether to allow your Request for Review to proceed in light of the particular circumstances in the case. If you have not yet finished preparing your Request for Review or served the Request for Review as described in the next two steps, you should still serve a Notice of Intention to Seek Review on the school district. Skipping this step altogether is likely to cause further delay in the school district's submission of the hearing record to the Office of State Review and delays in processing your appeal.