Preparing for change—moving to a new school

If your child is in middle school, you will likely be working with your child’s school to develop a transition plan to move to high school, or perhaps your child is returning to their community school after being in an alternative school and a transition plan also is in order. In each of these situations, you will want to talk with your child’s IEP team to ask for their help in preparing your child for success in this transfer to a new school.

Also, it’s important to talk with your child about the upcoming move to learn more about what they are excited about with the new school, as well as their worries and concerns about the move. Specific goals and activities to help your child prepare for the move and adjust to the new school can be included in your child’s IEP. Always include your child at the transition planning meetings so their voice is heard as plans are being made for the move.

If your child is transferring to a different school district or another state, this can be a bit more complicated as the new district may accept your child’s current IEP or decide to start the process to develop a new IEP. A new Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) evaluation also may be required—especially if the child is moving to a new state. It is helpful if you can start to talk with the Director of Special Education at your child’s new school as soon as possible to learn about how the IEP will transfer or if a new IEP, along with the evaluations, needs to be started.

It is important to get to know the special education team at your child’s new school as soon as possible. It also is vital to have all your documentation from your child’s current IEP, including evaluations completed by the school and from outside professionals, if appropriate. You also will want to request a copy of your child’s school records from their current school. Anytime your child is moving to a new school, it is good to review the IEP to see if any services need to be changed or added to fit the new situation.

If your child is transferring to a private school, then you need to understand that they are not required to provide special education services. Private schools may have equitable service plans where the public school district within which the private school is located selects one related service to offer students, such as speech language therapy. But private schools are not required to provide special education services like a public school.

However, if your district is placing your child in a private school (like an alternative day school), then that is considered an educational placement by the district, so your child’s IEP will remain. You will still have district members on your child’s IEP team, but staff from the new placement also may join the IEP team.

Life can become complicated when kids need to switch schools. In the resources section, several different scenarios are included from Understood.org to help you understand how things would work in different situations. Please remember to ask your child’s special education team if you have questions and refer to your local parent education center if you have additional concerns.

Helpful Handouts

Additional Resources