If the school district has already served you with a Notice of Intention to Seek Review and/or served you with a Request for Review, you are the Respondent. Respondents may, but do not have to, respond to the Request for Review. If you won at the impartial hearing, or you won on some matters but not others, you can respond to the district's Request for Review in one of two ways. One way to respond is to file a response (Answer) that indicates you accept the IHO's decision, and identifies the reasons that you believe the district's request should be denied and the IHO's decision should be upheld.
However, you may not agree with all of the IHO's decision. If you have won on some issues, but disagree with other portions of the IHO's decision, the second way to respond is to file an "Answer with Cross-Appeal". If this is the case, you may cross-appeal those parts of the IHO's decision with which you disagree, but ask the State Review Officer to uphold the portions of the IHO's decision that you agree with. In most instances, a State Review Officer can only address an issues that at least one of the parties has either appealed or cross-appealed.
The instructions for preparing an Answer are discussed in detail below. If you wish to file an Answer and Cross-Appeal, please see follow the instructions in Section III of this Parent Guide.