How To Register For Public School If You're Moving

Photo of 2 moving boxes in an empty doorway, labeled "kitchen" and "living room." Updated, October 2018

Moving to a new location can sure disrupt your life! For any family this can be a time of anarchy. At that place is the gamble of newness but likewise a maddening defoliation. For a family with a child who has special needs, the confusion can be particularly stressful.

To avert some of the less desirable "adventures," information technology may be a adept idea to map out your strategy before you lot motility. This is especially important regarding school and your child'due south special educational activity needs.

Presented here are some questions you might ask yourself, preferably well in accelerate of your move. The answers given contain suggestions for helping your family unit brand a smooth change from your kid'due south present special education placement to the new one. These suggestions are derived from personal experience, contact with families who have met the "challenge," advice from administrators, and other authorities and research.

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Q: Volition the school in my new neighborhood offering special education programs?

Yes. There are several federal laws that require public schools to provide a free appropriate public instruction (FAPE) to all children, regardless of handicapping condition. The almost notable of these is the IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Idea is the nation'due south special instruction police force. It sets minimum requirements that all states have to follow. States and so develop their own special teaching laws and regulations. Dissimilar states may use unlike words to describe certain disabilities or programs. They may have differing eligibility requirements and unlike processes of evaluation and placement. Some states offer programs not bachelor in other states, and rural regions may have dissimilar systems for providing special education than suburban or urban areas. Just they all must offering the aforementioned basic services, in keeping with the requirements of IDEA.

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Q: How can I learn well-nigh my "new" land'south laws and regulations?

Each state publishes information virtually early intervention (for babies and toddlers with disabilities) and special instruction (for schoolhouse-aged children with disabilities) in their state. Present, this information is ordinarily online.

To learn about the new state's early intervention laws and policies (for children with disabilities not yet three years old) :
If your child is an babe or toddler (birth to the third birthday), y'all volition need to contact the lead agency forearly on intervention programs in the new state. In some states that's the Section of Education, but in other states it may be the Department of Health or Human Resources. Notice out who's in charge, the website address, and contact data for your land'south lead agency at the Early on Childhood Technical Help Center, at:
http://ectacenter.org/contact/ptccoord.asp

To learn about special education in the new state:
If your child is school-aged (including preschool), you will need to contact the State Department of Didactics and, perhaps, its Special Instruction Division. Notice the new state's website and contact information by visiting the National Clan of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), at:
https://www.nasdse.org/meet_the_state_directors.php

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We strongly recommend getting in contact with the new state's PTI or CPRC.PTI stands for Parent Training and Data Centre, which every state has. Some states too have a Community Parent Resources Heart. Parent Centers are funded by the U.S. Department of Education to help families of children with disabilities :

learn well-nigh services and resource in the area;
country laws and policies about early intervention services and special education services;
connect with other families or parent groups; and
learn to be agile participants in (and advocates for) their child's education.

To discover what's available in the new state, visit our Find Your Parent Center folio, at:
https://www.parentcenterhub.org/find-your-center/

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Q: When should I start this process?

The well-nigh important footstep is to start early on. As shortly as you lot know or are seriously considering moving to a new state, you can start to become ready. You may not know which boondocks or school district you will live in, but as long as y'all know the land you tin brainstorm.

If you are moving to another location in the aforementioned state, much of this information is all the same important. Even within a state, unlike school districts can vary in their policies and programs.

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Q: Will the new school use my kid'south IEP from the old schoolhouse?

That's a very good question, and an important one. The answer is: It depends.

Let u.s. explicate a footling, since this is a question frequently asked past parents. 3 dissimilar situations are possible here and all presume that you brand the motion in the aforementioned school year. Which of these situations mirror your own?

Y'all move within the aforementioned state, stay in the same schoolhouse system, but your child will be going to a different school. In this case, the same school system is responsible for your kid's education, just in a different schoolhouse. Your child's IEP would exist transferred to the new school and implemented as written.

You lot movement within the same land, but to a different school system (a unlike schoolhouse district, say). This means that a different agency becomes responsible for your kid's didactics. That school organisation has the pick of adopting your child's IEP every bit is or it can develop its own IEP for your kid (with your interest as a team fellow member). Until information technology opts to develop its own IEP, the new school system must provide FAPE to your child, including services comparable to those described in the IEP developed in the previous schoolhouse system.

You move to a dissimilar state birthday. Obviously, a different agency becomes responsible for educating your child. That new agency must provide FAPE to your child, including services comparable to those described in the IEP from the previous state, until–and this is the new agency'due south selection–it conducts a full and individual evaluation of your kid to determine if he or she is an eligible "child with a disability" in that country. The agency may decide that an evaluation isn't needed, in which case it is non required to conduct one. Should the agency determine to evaluate your child, it will need your permission as parents. If your child is plant eligible for special education services in the new state, a new IEP volition demand to be developed according to local policies. As always, you every bit the parent are a member of the team that develops your kid's IEP. (You may wish to read the Baronial 2018 letter that OSEP sent in response to a question about this very situation.)

Only nosotros're getting alee of ourselves, aren't nosotros? You haven't even moved yet! You're just getting ready to motility…

Q: What practice I exercise offset?

Check all your child'south records. Is the Individualized Pedagogy Program (IEP) or the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) current, or is another 1 due soon? If there should be a new IEP/IFSP virtually the time yous plan to motility, request that the new IEP/IFSP be written earlier to facilitate your child'southward placement in the new school. If you asking the IEP/IFSP several months in advance, your current schoolhouse should not have a problem moving the meeting upwardly. You lot desire to be sure to schedule this meeting at least 6 weeks before y'all will move, so in that location volition be time to get the information finalized and have copies of the new IEP/IFSP signed and ready to share with the new school or early intervention program.

Is a triennial reevaluation of your kid due this year? If yes, once more contact your kid's current school well in advance of the move and request the triennial reevaluation exist COMPLETED at to the lowest degree 6 weeks earlier your moving appointment. Again, this volition insure that you can get signed copies of the review to have with yous to the new school district.

Talk to your child'southward current instructor(s) and therapists. Ask if they could write a letter of introduction to the new teacher(s) and therapists which describes your child, his strengths, areas of weakness, and successful approaches to working with him. The new instructor(s) and therapists will be able to incorporate successful ideas into their programs immediately. Once more, be certain to make this request well in accelerate of needing information technology, so the teachers and therapists have enough of time to do this.

Has your child had a physical this yr? If not, visit your current pediatrician and have this done at least 6 weeks earlier y'all move. Be sure your kid is upwards to date on all vaccinations and regular "baby shots" and that you have a complete record from your pediatrician. If you use a dispensary, public health organisation or Indian Health Services for medical care, be sure they have given you a complete tape of your child's shots and a re-create of the current concrete.

If your child is taking regular prescription medicine or has prescriptions for any therapy, get copies of these medical reports. Exist certain you have at to the lowest degree a ane-calendar month supply or more, if possible, of any prescription medications before you move so you won't have to find a new doctor, get an appointment and need a new prescription in the center of all your other concerns. Brand note of how long this medication will last so you can allow yourself time to schedule new appointments when you lot move. If you lot know you will need to see a doctor very before long after you move, try to make an appointment before yous move so that volition be settled.

If your child is seeing any specialists, such as neurologists, allergists or the like, besides be certain you get a consummate set of medical records from these physicians to accept with you lot. Also contact your child'due south dentist and take those records with you.

You may want to ask your current doctor(s) for referrals to doctors or clinics in your new location. When you tell your child'southward doc you are moving, ask for whatsoever information that may exist helpful to the new doctor you will exist seeing. Enquire if the new dr. tin can call the current dr. if there are any questions or topics that need to be discussed. If yous are interested in having your child's current dr. continue to be office of the medical squad, discuss this pick, too. You can go along the current medico informed by sending regular medical reports so that he/she can consult with you and the new doctor most your child's needs and progress.

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Q: What else should I do?

At the state level.
At the aforementioned fourth dimension you are checking and collecting all your child's records, get a copy of the "new" state'southward special educational activity guidelines and policies. You volition want to pay special attention to eligibility requirements to be sure y'all take all the paperwork you need when you arrive. Exist sure to contact the new state as shortly as you know you lot volition be moving; it may take six to viii weeks to respond to your request for information. And you can always get this information—in depth!—from your new state's Parent Center. (Find yours here.)

At the local educational level.
If you know which county you will be moving into, request a copy of whatsoever information they have on special education. Tell them you will exist moving into their county and that your child is currently receiving special education services that you would similar to have continued in his/her new schoolhouse. Tell them the age of your child, the nature of his/her disability, and the services he/she is currently receiving, including any therapies or special transportation needs. Ask for information on eligibility requirements for similar services in their schools, and what records they will need. (Over again, the new country'south Parent Center is an excellent source of this information.)

Ask if it would be helpful to ship your child's records in advance and, if so, to whom should they exist sent (remember, ever go on copies in your home file). You tin likewise asking a meeting within the first week of your arrival in your new town. You might ask them nearly transportation arrangements and so the coach will arrive when your child is prepare to start to his/her new school.

At the local schoolhouse level.
If yous will be visiting your new location before you really move, you may exist able to get information on schools and medical facilities while you're in town. Information technology is most efficient to meet with the special pedagogy staff when yous've got all your child'south records nerveless and upwards-to-date. However, if you accept the fourth dimension, information technology might be interesting to visit special teaching programs in the new school commune, also as talk to parent groups.

Q: Why get in touch with parent or inability groups?

Often families want to know the "best" schoolhouse or the "best" plan for their child. Obviously this is a hard question, since one person's idea of best may not be the same as another person's. Often, talking to families who have children with similar needs can offer insight into the options. Parents can talk quite informally about what they like and dislike about the various programs, staff, and schools in a community. Parents can likewise talk well-nigh non-school topics, similar day care, respite care, recreation, medical facilities and the like.

Even if in that location is non a parent group or disability organization for families merely like yours, you may find it useful to talk to other groups. The opinions of other people who are using the same systems (schools, therapists, buses, etc.) tin be very useful. Pick upward local newsletters too; they have information on local news of importance to families concerned with inability problems.

And again, we strongly recommend getting in contact with the new land'southward PTI or CPRC. Find yours at:
https://world wide web.parentcenterhub.org/discover-your-center/

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Q: What most early intervention and preschool programs?

There is a nifty variety of services available for very young children. Exist sure to check with the new school system to find out what early on intervention programs exist for children your child's historic period. If your child is moving from an early intervention programme to preschool, the changes may exist significant. Again, ask early and give details of your child's needs and electric current services. To identify the land's atomic number 82 agency, visit the Early Babyhood Technical Assistance Middle, at:
http://ectacenter.org/contact/ptccoord.asp

It may be helpful to talk to your child'due south current therapists and/or teachers to discuss what would exist provided in the next age group. In other words, if your child is almost 3 years quondam, his or her program might change even if your family were non moving. By talking to the electric current staff y'all will take an idea of what to look for in the new school system.

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Q: What well-nigh loftier schoolhouse students, transition, and piece of work opportunities?

The electric current IEP should exist useful in transferring information nigh transition needs and plans. If your kid is in a vocational program, or plans to exist side by side year, this may be a good fourth dimension to have a vocational assessment done. Oft vocational assessments include the observations of the people teaching/working with your child, so the comments of the current staff would be important. Conducting such evaluations is time consuming and would best exist done before the motility. The results volition and so be immediately bachelor to aid professionals at the new schoolhouse determine the almost appropriate placement of a educatee they exercise non know.

If your high school pupil does not have transition information in his/her electric current IEP, work with the present school special education staff to develop a transition plan in the updated IEP you will asking before moving. Again, be sure to make this request far in advance of the moving engagement to allow time for the entire team to put together a plan. You can read more than about planning for transition to adulthood in CPIR'due south info suite on the bailiwick.

If your son or girl is inside 2 years of finishing high schoolhouse, information technology may be very useful to exist certain triennial reevaluations are upwards-to-appointment. Even when a student is nearing the terminate of his/her school years, a current evaluation is important in transitioning him/her to adult services and piece of work. Exist sure your child has had a triennial within the last two and a one-half years. If non, asking that this exist done before you move. The information nerveless volition be very useful in planning new programs, and the people who know your kid and accept had feel working with him/her may be the best ones to conduct this evaluation.

Students who are working in work sites identified and/or supervised by either the special education team or community services board (or other formal job placement arrangement specifically for people with disabilities) volition besides require complete records of their piece of work placement, work experience, accommodations, transportation and the like. Again, information technology may be very useful to ask the current work supervisor to write a letter describing your son's or daughter's strengths, needs, and well-nigh effective strategies for achieving success on the job. There is a great deal of variation in piece of work experience arrangements in dissimilar communities and unlike states, with dissimilar agencies delivering these services. When you contact the new school district, yous will need to ask who is responsible for organizing work experience programs for students whose needs are similar to those of your child. When you contact that person, either in person when you go far or by email before then, be sure to pass forth all the information you have assembled most your child'south current placement.

Q: What do I do about Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Benefits?

States vary in the amount, or rate, of SSI benefits they pay and also in eligibility requirements. This means that i state may pay more than or less than some other, that a child eligible for SSI benefits in one state may non exist eligible for any benefits in some other state, or that a child who had been denied SSI benefits in one state may in fact exist eligible for benefits in the land to which his family unit is moving. Depending on where yous move, you may need to be interviewed by the local Social Security office, either in person or past phone. To find out well-nigh SSI benefits in the new state, visit SSA online to identify where the local SSA office in the new state is located, or telephone call the Social Security national toll gratis number, 1-800-772-1213 (Vocalization); ane-800-325-0778 (TTY).

Social Security advises that families should not file for benefits in the new country until they moved and have an established accost. Co-ordinate to Social Security, changing an address before a family unit really moves tin crusade a lot of confusion if a family due south plans change, which frequently happens.

Q: What do I practice if I need to move in a few weeks and don't have much time?

Essentially the aforementioned things need to be done regardless of how much advance notice you have of a motility. It is certainly much easier to get all this achieved with several months time, merely there are some short cuts.

All the records about your child need to be nerveless and duplicated. Messages from teachers, therapists and other professionals working with your kid are very helpful and can be requested before you motility and mailed to the new accost every bit soon every bit possible. Updating IEPs, triennials, vocational assessments and the like may non exist possible. All the same, you may desire to talk to the people who would be involved in these evaluations and ask them to write y'all a letter explaining whatever changes or suggestions they would have for a new IEP, etc. Again, these letters can be requested as soon as you know y'all'll exist moving and be mailed to the new accost, when they are completed.

Explain to your child'southward doctor(s) and dentist that you lot volition exist moving very before long and that, unfortunately, you were not given much advance find. If your kid has not had a physical inside the past 12 months or is scheduled for any treatments, shots, or the like in the side by side calendar month or two, you lot may discover it useful to see the current doctor earlier you movement. Hopefully the receptionist will be able to schedule an appointment. Likewise explain that y'all will demand to have medical records forwarded and enquire if yous can pick these up when you come in for the appointment. If there is not enough time, y'all tin can request that the records be mailed to you at the new address. Be sure to fill up all needed prescriptions.

If y'all are rushed with your plans, it may be more important than e'er to make a notebook of needed names and phone numbers. Continue a record of the names and address of the people you asked to write letters or ship information, and so you tin easily contact them if the requested papers do not arrive. Listing all appointments you make with the new school staff and make a list of the information they enquire you to bring to these meetings. Don t forget to enquire for directions to the place of the meetings.

Q: What if information technology'south summer time, Christmas vacation, or spring suspension?

Clearly, it is much more difficult to accomplish the people you need to talk to if school is closed. Vacations can prolong the time necessary to reach the correct people or get the records mailed.

However, school offices are generally open up the months of June and July even when schoolhouse is closed. You should exist able to get records and information during this time. Baronial may be the most hard calendar month, since this is when many offices close for vacation. It would be skillful to try to attain all school people before or after August.

If you are looking for teachers or therapists in your new location during the summer, many school districts will non give out their home addresses. However, you lot can send a letter or e-mail stating your needs to the new schoolhouse and call to ask them to forward it to the teacher or therapist's home. In your letter of the alphabet you lot might ask the instructor or therapist to phone call you and give your home number. You tin can also contact your new land'due south Parent Center and encounter what guidance they tin can offering yous.

Q: What if we are a military family?

Photo from the DODEA website: https://www.dodea.edu/ Essentially the same information applies to families in the war machine who are moving within the United States. There are people who tin offering help specifically to military families. The Department of Defence Teaching Activity (DoDEA) is an of import source of information to military families who are moving. We refer you in particular to DoDEA's website discussion of "Relocating: Things to Call back" at:
http://www.dodea.edu/Curriculum/specialEduc/relocation.cfm

You lot may also find the Moving and Housing folio at the Military machine OneSource helpful. Lots of good tips and resources hither, including the Plan My Motility relocation tool.
https://www.militaryonesource.mil/moving-housing

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Q: What practice I practise with all these records?

Duplicate them. Brand sure you accept at least two full sets of records and information on your kid. You will need to give records to the new school and yous should ever exist sure to maintain a complete set of records for your personal files. When you need more copies of records, you can employ your file to make them. NEVER give away the simply copy of any slice of information. When yous get out a school district, they volition not maintain a file on your child forever; at some point these records volition be destroyed.

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Q: Should I mail the records to the new schoolhouse?

If you lot have successfully contacted the new school system staff and arranged for eligibility and placement meetings, you may want to arrange for official school records to be sent to your contact person. This could give you a head start on identifying the most appropriate educational program. Again, the goal is to shine the way for transition into the new school and the more information the new school has about your child and his/her needs, the better.

If y'all exercise not yet know who will be handling your child's special instruction needs, you may want to deport the records with you and personally deliver them at your first meeting with the new schoolhouse staff. Generally, schools will need original records, but copies can be delivered for use until the official transcripts arrive.

If you do decide to send records in advance, be sure you continue a complete set up of the records for your personal files. You may demand to provide information to other people, similar doctors or therapists, and you lot will then be able to make duplicates of your file copies.

Q: Should I pack the records?

It would exist a practiced idea to hand deport your child's current records, like this year's IEP and medical papers, with you. Packed boxes may accept time to arrive and unpack and the goal is to meet with the staff of the new school as soon as you get in to facilitate placement. So buy a big sturdy binder which closes deeply and apply this to transport your child'due south records.

Y'all tin pack records from past years. These probably won't be every bit immediately important. However, medical records should exist kept handy in case of any emergency, so make sure you label the box that contains these records.

Q: How do I keep all these records, meetings, eligibility requirements, and emails straight?

Buy a screw or looseleaf notebook to keep track of all the things y'all are doing. Put the names, titles, and phone numbers of all the people you talk to in your notebook, along with a few lines near what you discussed and any recommendations that were made. It may be difficult to call back all the new names at first, and this will aid y'all proceed your information straight. You lot can also employ this notebook for appointments, directions, and reminders of topics or questions you want to talk over.

Since appointments and meetings will exist held in a town yous may non be familiar with, it might be a skilful idea to ask for directions to the meeting place. You lot can put these directions into the notebook and so y'all'll have them next to the notes virtually the meeting.

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Q: How long will it take to get my kid settled into the new school?

This is another hard question to answer. With careful pre-planning, the new school commune should be able to arrange for an acting placement immediately. They may want to administer some of their own evaluation tests and certainly will want to develop a new IEP. However, in the concurrently, the current IEP can exist used to avoid an pause in school.

You lot should ask near transportation and visit the new schoolhouse as soon as you can. Y'all can telephone call the new schoolhouse and schedule a time to observe; at the aforementioned time, schedule a one-half hr or so to introduce yourself to the new instructor. Establishing a positive relationship with the new staff is always helpful. Let them know that yous are interested in working with them to adapt for a successful placement and that you are available to discuss any questions or concerns they may take. Again, the old schoolhouse will need to send original records. Give them letters and/or reports from the sometime teachers and therapists, and be sure to keep copies for your files.

Q: What if there are problems, if my kid'south placement is delayed, or if I disagree with the placement?

Any fourth dimension you have concerns about whatsoever aspect of your kid's special education program, in that location are established methods for addressing your concerns. Talk to your child's teacher and the special didactics staff to arrange for a meeting. You may want to review your child's IEP, review progress to appointment, hash out additional evaluations, request curricula specialists to review your kid's progress, etc.

The information provided by the new land should include guidelines for addressing problems. Follow these guidelines. This is also an occasion to contact the parent and/or disability organizations in your new location. They, too, may be able to offer suggestions on effectively addressing the concerns you have.

AND NEVER FORGET: Your state'south Parent Center is at that place to assistance you with information, grooming, advancement, guidance, insights, and connections. Always, e'er get to know your new state'south Parent Center.

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Checklist

Use this list to check off each task that you need to complete. Merely cross out whatever tasks that don't employ to your family.

____ Get a notebook to keep rail of everything you've done or volition need to do.

____ Give your child's current school your new address.

____ Discover out if all school records are up to engagement.

____ Request copies of all data in your child's files; be sure all evaluations, assessments, reports, IEPs, therapist's reports, and whatsoever related documents are there.

____ Request updates on any schoolhouse records that need it (IEPs, triennials, vocational cess, transition plans, etc.)

____ Duplicate all school records. Your school may provide this service or you can oft observe duplicating machines in the public library.

____ Inform your child's teacher(south), therapist(southward), employer(s), counselor(south) and other professionals working with your kid that you will be moving. Ask them to write letters nearly their experiences with your child and any recommendations or observations that they accept.

____ Phone call your child's doctor(south) and, if necessary, make appointments.

____ Call your child's dentist and, if necessary, make an appointment.

____ Request copies of all medical records, including those of whatever specialist(s) your kid is seeing. Duplicate these.

____ Call the Social Security toll costless line, i-800-772-1213, to observe out about SSI benefits in your new state.

____ Fill all prescriptions, so that you have at least i month'southward supply.

____ Contact the Department of Special Education in the new state and/or local school district. Asking information about policies, procedures and eligibility requirements, and asking an appointment for the week of arrival in the new location.

____ Connect with your new state's Parent Center. Visit their website, subscribe to their newsletter, explore the information they offer online, which will exist state-specific and of tremendous firsthand help.

____ Contact the new schoolhouse, if possible, and arrange for eligibility and placement meetings presently after yous arrive.

____ Contact local parent and/or disability groups in the new location. Your Parent Center is probable to have data virtually what groups are available.

____ Become a large sturdy binder that closes securely in which to transport your kid'south records.

____ Put all records in a safe place and then they won't be packed or lost (you could put them in the car right at present or put them in your mitt luggage).

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