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.

1. Timeline 

A Notice of Request for Review and the Request for Review that are prepared by a parent must be served on the Board of Education of the school district the same way the Notice of Intention to Seek Review was served, no later than 40 calendar days after the date of the decision of the impartial hearing officer (IHO) you are requesting be reviewed.  However, if a school district already initiated an appeal of the IHO decision against the parent by serving the parent with a Request for Review within the same 40-day timeline, the parent would not need to follow the instructions below. Instead, the parent may respond to the school district's Request for Review in an Answer or Answer with Cross-Appeal as described in Section II of this guide.

2. A Notice of Request for Review (Form B / Form B)

A copy of this notice should be attached as a cover page to your Request for Review. The heading, or caption in this document should record the same parent and school district names in the upper left-hand corner as those that were listed on the Notice of Intention to Seek Review.  The body of the Notice of Request for Review must contain the words exactly as they appear on Form B, and must be signed by you at the bottom.

3. Request for Review

The Request for Review is the document in which you state your reasons that you are seeking review of the Impartial Hearing Officer's decision.   You are permitted to use the form Request for Review that has been created by the Office of State Review, but you are not required to use this particular form when writing your Request for Review.  Form Request for Review.  You may examine a completed example of a form Request for Review and use it as a guide for filling out your own form.  Sample form Request for Review.  If you prefer not to use the form created by the Office of State Review, you may use an alternative format of your own design, provided it meets the minimum requirements listed below.  Some parties choose to use a narrative format when drafting a Request for Review and you may wish to examine an example of this alternative format to guide you in preparing your own appeal. Sample narrative Request for Review. While there is no standard or required form for a Request for Review,  the Request for Review must be prepared in accordance with the following directions:

a. The Request for Review must be typewritten using standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 10 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch.

Please Note: If you file using the e-Filing System in the Office of State Review, you are no longer required to submit a hard copy with the Office.

If you opt to file a hard copy by mail, to facilitate processing, the Office of State Review encourages parties to use regular staples only to fasten pages together and strongly discourages parties from using binding systems for papers submitted to the Office of State Review (i.e. comb binding, velobinding, tape binding, etc.)

b. A caption or heading should appear in the upper left hand corner listing the same parental and school district parties that appear on the Notice of Intention to Seek Review and the Notice of Request for Review. 

c. Begin the Request for Review by identifying yourself as the parent or person in parental relationship to the child.

d. State the child's age, and the name of the school, if any, which the child is attending.

e. Make a clear and concise statement of the issues/IHO rulings that you would like the State Review Officer to review and the reasons that the IHO's decision should be reversed or changed, with each issue/IHO ruling numbered and set forth separately.  Any issue/IHO ruling that you wish to challenge but do not identify in your Request for Review will not be addressed by the State Review Officer and it will be assumed that you are abandoning that issue or ruling of the IHO.

f. Explain to the State Review Officer what part(s) of the hearing officer's decision you disagree with, and why you disagree with the hearing officer's decision.  Also explain the hearing officer's failure to or refusal to rule on/decide an issue and if you would like the State Review Officer to review that issue.  When possible, you should refer to the evidence in the record, such as the page numbers from the written transcript of the hearing or written documents which were presented at the hearing, to support your argument.  For example, "Tr. pp. 365-70" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced of your point that you are writing about by looking at pages 365 through 370 of the hearing transcript, and  "Parent Ex. Q at p. 8" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced by the information on page 8 of Parent's documentary exhibit Q.

g. If you object to the way in which the IHO conducted the hearing, you should state your objection, and if possible, you should refer to any pages of the written record of the hearing which relate to your objection.

h. Indicate what relief or remedy you are seeking by bringing the appeal.  At the end of the Request for Review, you should explain to the State Review Officer what you would like to see happen.  You may ask the State Review Officer to reverse or change the IHO's decision and, for example:

• order that your child is eligible for special education; order that a different evaluation/assessment of your child be conducted;order your child's type of classroom setting or other special service(s) be changed (or not be changed); order that extra special education services be provided by the school district to your child to make up for a lack of services that the district should have provided to your child in the past; and/or order that you be reimbursed for private school tuition because you obtained the specialized schooling/programming that your child needed after the district failed to provide your child with appropriate special education.

The items above are several examples of relief that parents have sought from State Review Officers and is not the only relief you may request. You must decide what you believe the school district should be ordered to do to help your child and explain what you would like the State Review Officer to order.

i. You are not required to refer to portions of Federal or State laws or regulations to support your argument that the decision of the hearing officer should be overturned or amended; however, if you wish you may do so in the Request for Review. 

j. Part 279 requires that a party (i.e., the parent) must sign the Request for Review unless represented by an attorney, in which case the parent's attorney is required to sign the Request for Review.

k. You may also submit a separate document detailing your legal arguments.  The separate document is a "Memorandum of Law."  Your Memorandum of Law in support of your Request for Review should be typewritten, standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 30 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch.

4. Affidavit of Verification (Form D / Form D)

A verification is a document prepared after the Request for Review has been completed, signed, and dated.  In this verification form you, as the petitioner, make an oath in front of any person authorized to administer oaths in New York State (such as a Notary Public or Commissioner of Deeds) that the statements in the Request for Review are true to the best of your knowledge.  If used, affirmations must be dated and sworn under penalties of perjury. You will usually find a Notary Public or a Commissioner of Deeds in a government office, a bank, or by searching the internet for a notary in your area.  More recently, New York State has established specific procedures that must be followed by a notary with the appropriate license to perform the notary services remotely.

After you have prepared the Notice of Request for Review, Request for Review, and Affidavit of Verification, you should make two copies of the originals. You should keep one copy for your records. The other copy of the Notice of Request for Review, Request for Review, and Affidavit of Verification must be hand-delivered to the school district.  This hand-delivery is a form of "service."  This service must be made upon 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.

After a parent has served (by hand-delivery) the Notice of Request for Review, the Request for Review and the Affidavit of Verification on the school district as described above, you must also submit an Affidavit of Personal Service that is signed by the person who served the papers.  If a school district is the petitioner serving the Request for Review on the parent, a similar rule applies and the school district is required to personally serve the parent when initiating an appeal.

1. Affidavit or Proof of Personal Service (Form E / Form E)

An Affidavit of Service is a written form that describes how, when and to whom the appeal papers were served.  The Affidavit of Service must specifically describe:

• What papers were delivered
• Who delivered the papers
• Where the papers were delivered
• The date and time the papers were delivered
• How the papers were delivered
• If given to someone, a description of the person and
• If papers were mailed based upon an agreement to waive personal service,* how and to whom they were mailed.

The Affidavit of Service must be signed by the person who served the school district with the documents in front of a notary public.  You should make a copy of the Affidavit of Service for your records.

*The State regulations do not preclude a school district and a parent from agreeing to "waive" the personal service method. Waiver of personal service is not permitted unless the party being served agrees to accept papers in an alternate delivery method.  If both sides agree, it is strongly advisable for the parties to have such an agreement in writing.  An affidavit describing how the Notice of Intention to Seek Review, Notice of Request for Review, and the Verified Request for Review were served using the alternate method must still be filed with the Office of State Review, even if the personal method of service has been waived by both parties.

The form provided on the web site of the Office of State Review is for personal service as described in State regulations only.  The Office of State Review does not provide other forms for use in conjunction with alternative methods of service of a Verified Request for Review as agreed to by parties.

2. Filing with the Office of State Review

Within 2 calendar days of serving the Verified Request for Review upon the opposing party, you must file the following items with the Office of State Review to complete the process of initiating the appeal:

1. The original Notice of Intention to Seek Review and Case Information Statement
2. An Affidavit of Service showing the delivery of the Notice of Intention to Seek Review Review and Case Information Statement
3. The Notice of Request for Review
4. Request for Review
5. Affidavit of Verification of the Request for Review
6. A Memorandum of Law if any (this is optional), and
7. An Affidavit of Service for the Notice of Request for Review, Request for Review, Affidavit of Verification of the Request for Review, and any optional Memorandum of Law that you have served.

As of March 2023, you are strongly encouraged to electronically file the documents listed above using the secure, encrypted e-File System instead of mailing them to the Office of State Review. The e-File System features on screen and e-mail messages to the address you provide and confirms successful transmission of your filings to the Office of State Review.  The Office of State Review e-File System is powered by a software product called HighQ, and the automated messages are generated from a highq.com email address. In order to receive e-mail confirmation messages from the e-File System, please be sure any spam or junk filters  you have do not prevent you from receiving e-mail messages from highq.com.

If you do not use the e-Filing System, you may mail them to the State Review Officer at the following address:

Office of State Review

New York State Education Department

80 Wolf Road, Suite 203

Albany, NY 12205

3. Improper Service/Filing of a Request for Review

If you do not serve your Verified Request for Review upon the school district within 40 calendar days of the date of the impartial hearing officer's decision, your appeal may be dismissed.  To avoid this outcome you must clearly state good reason(s) within your Verified Request for Review explaining why you were unable serve it within the 40-day time limit (i.e. lengthy or unplanned hospitalization, catastrophic weather conditions/power loss).    

Please note that the State Review Officer may, but is not required to excuse a party's failure to timely serve a Verified Request for Review if good cause is shown within the Verified Request for Review. Good cause generally includes situations that arise that are beyond your control, and generally does not include business/personal travel, lack of legal representation, or work/regular family obligations.  Lengthy delays in receiving the IHO's decision may or may not be good cause depending on the circumstances and you should make your best efforts to comply with the 40-day time limit for serving the Verified Request for Review even if your receipt of the IHO's decision was delayed.

If the parent is the petitioner, the district will have the right to respond to your Verified Request for Review in one of two ways, either with

1. an "Answer" or

2. an "Answer with Cross-Appeal."

If the parent is the petitioner,  an Answer is the district's response to the issues you as the petitioner have raised and the Answer explains why the district thinks the impartial hearing officer's decision was correct.

An Answer with Cross-Appeal is similar to an Answer, but it also includes argument by the respondent district that some portion(s) of the impartial hearing officer's decision are incorrect as well.  If the district serves you with an Answer that includes a Cross-Appeal and thereby challenges a portion of the IHO's decision, then you will have the right to respond to the district's Cross-Appeal with an Answer of your own as described in the next step in this guide.

1. How to Prepare and Serve a Verified Answer to a Cross-Appeal (Sample Forthcoming)

The guidance provided in this step presumes that the parent is the Petitioner who filed the Request for Review and the district is the Respondent in the appeal to the State Review Officer. However, if those roles are reversed, the school district would follow the same rules in a similar manner in order to serve and file an Verified Answer to a Cross-Appeal upon a parent.

Within 5 business days after receiving an Answer with Cross-Appeal, you may serve a Verified Answer to the Cross-Appeal.  If the Answer with Cross-Appeal was served on you by mail, 3 calendar days are added to the end of this period.

a. If you disagree with the district's Cross-Appeal, you will need to explain in your answer why the impartial hearing officer was correct in deciding in your favor the issues the school district is now appealing.  If possible, you should refer to the evidence in the record, such as the page numbers from the written transcript of the hearing or written documents which were presented at the hearing, to support your argument. For example, "Tr. pp. 365-70" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced of your point that you are writing about by looking at pages 365 through 370 of the hearing transcript, and "Parent Ex. Q at p. 8" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced by the information on page 8 of Parent's documentary exhibit Q.

b. The Answer should be typewritten using standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 10 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch.

c. While you are not required to refer to portions of Federal or State laws or regulations to support your argument that the decision of the hearing officer should be upheld, you may do so in the Answer.  You may also submit a separate document detailing your legal arguments.  The separate document is a Memorandum of Law.  Your Memorandum of Law in support of your Answer should be typewritten, standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 10 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch.

d. State regulations require that all pleadings be signed by the party if unrepresented or, if represented by an attorney, must be signed by the attorney. The Answer to Cross-Appeal must be dated.

e. Affidavit of Verification Form D. (Form D / Form D). A verification is a document prepared after the Answer to Cross-Appeal has been completed, signed, and dated. In this form you as the petitioner make an oath in front of any person authorized to administer oaths in New York State (such as a Notary Public or Commissioner of Deeds) that the statements in the signed and dated  Answer to Cross-Appeal are true to the best of your knowledge. Affirmations, if used, must be sworn under penalties of perjury. 

f. You may serve the Verified Answer to the Cross-Appeal along with the Affidavit of Verification by personal delivery, mail, or overnight delivery service to the school district or the school district's attorney. You should make a copy of these documents for your records.

g. An Affidavit of  Service must be completed. 

• The Affidavit of  Service must be signed before a Notary Public or a Commissioner of Deeds by the person who delivered the documents to the Board of Education.  You should make a copy and keep for your records.
• If you serve the Answer to Cross-Appeal by mail or overnight delivery service, you may compete the Affidavit of Service by Mail using Form F (Form F / Form F).
• However, if you serve the Answer to Cross-Appeal by personal service (i.e. hand delivery) then you may complete the Affidavit of Personal Service using Form E (Form E /Form E).
• The forms provided on the web site of the Office of State Review are for service in accordance with State regulations only.  The Office of State Review does not provide other forms for use in conjunction with alternative methods of service of a Verified Answer to Cross-Appeal as agreed to by parties.

h. Within 2 calendar days of serving the Verified Answer to the Cross-Appeal upon the school district, the following items must be filed with the Office of State Review:

1. the original Verified Answer to the Cross-Appeal,
2. the Affidavit of Verification,
3. a Memorandum of Law (optional), and
4. the Affidavit of Service.

As of March 2023, you are strongly encouraged to electronically file the documents listed above using the secure, encrypted e-File System instead of mailing them to the Office of State Review. 

If you do not electronically file your documents, State regulation permits you to mail the documents to:

Office of State Review

New York State Education Department

80 Wolf Road, Suite 203

Albany, NY 12205

a. The Reply is your response to any claims the school district raised in its Answer that you did not already address in your Verified Request for Review, to any affirmative defenses raised in the Answer, or to any additional documentary evidence served with the Answer.

b. You must serve the school district with a Verified Reply within 3 calendar days after you receive personal service of the Answer (or within 6 calendar days if the Answer was mailed to you).

c. Affirmative Defenses are facts raised by the school district which prevent you from winning your appeal for reasons other than the merits of your claim.  Examples of affirmative defenses include:

• That your request for review was not served on time or was not properly served on the district
• That the claims in your request for review were already resolved in an earlier impartial hearing or in a settlement agreement with the district
• That you are not the parent of the student or do not live in the district
• That you did not request or have an impartial hearing before seeking review by a State Review Officer
• That your claims are not the type of dispute that can be resolved by a State Review Officer

d. The Reply should be typewritten using standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 10 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch. You may also submit an optional separate document detailing your legal arguments.  The separate document is a Memorandum of Law.  Your Memorandum of Law in support of your Reply should be typewritten, standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 10 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch.

e. State regulations require that all pleadings be signed by the party if unrepresented or, if represented by an attorney, must be signed by the attorney. The Reply must be dated.

e. Affidavit of Verification Form D (Form D / Form D). A verification is a document prepared after the Reply has been completed, signed, and dated. In this form you as the petitioner make an oath in front of any person authorized to administer oaths in New York State (such as a Notary Public or Commissioner of Deeds) that the statements in the Reply are true to the best of your knowledge. Affirmations, if used, must be sworn under penalties of perjury. 

f. You may serve a Verified Reply by personal delivery, mail, or overnight delivery service to the school district's attorney.

• If you serve the Verified Reply by mail or overnight delivery service, you may compete the Affidavit of Service by Mail using Form F (Form F / Form F).

• However, if you serve the Verified Reply by personal service (i.e. hand delivery) then you may complete the Affidavit of Personal Service using Form E (Form E / Form E)

• The forms provided on the web site of the Office of State Review are for service in accordance with State regulations only.  The Office of State Review does not provide other forms for use in conjunction with alternative methods of service of a Verified Reply as agreed to by parties.

g. Within 2 calendar days after the service of the Verified Reply on the school district, the following items must be filed with the Office of State Review:

1. the Reply
2. the Affidavit of Verification
3. a Memorandum of Law (optional), and
4. the Affidavit of Service

As of March 2023, you are strongly encouraged to electronically file the documents listed above using the secure, encrypted e-File System instead of mailing them to the Office of State Review. 

If you do not electronically file your documents, State regulation permits you to mail the documents to:

Office of State Review

New York State Education Department

80 Wolf Road, Suite 203

Albany, NY 12205

 

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.

The guidance provided in this section presumes that the parent is the Respondent who already received a Request for Review and intends to respond in an Answer. In this case, the district is the Petitioner in the appeal to the State Review Officer.  However, if those roles are reversed, a Respondent school district would follow the same rules in a similar manner in order to serve and file an Verified Answer upon a parent Petitioner.

1. Timeline 

A school district's Request for Review is usually served on a parent by hand-delivery.  After the school district serves you with the Request for Review, you may prepare an Answer.  You must serve the school district with the Answer within 5 business days after the District serves you with the Request for Review.  You may request an extension of this deadline from the State Review Officer.

2. Answer

After reading the Request for Review, decide whether you disagree with any of the District's statements in the Request for Review.  In your Answer, you should respond to each issue identified by the District in the Request for Review.  If the IHO did not rule on issues that were written in the due process complaint notice that you want a State Review Officer to review, identify them in your Answer.

a. The Answer should be typewritten using standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 10 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch.

b. A caption or heading should appear in the upper left hand corner of the first page of the Answer, listing the same parental and school district parties that appear on the school district's Notice of Intention to Seek Review and its Notice of Request for Review.

c. Begin the Answer by identifying yourself as the parent or person in parental relationship to the child.

d. With the IHO's decision and the school district's Request for Review in mind, explain to the State Review Officer whether you agree or disagree with each of the school district's challenges to the IHO's decision.  Briefly explain to the State Review Officer the reasons why you believe that the decision of the hearing officer should not be changed. If possible, you should refer to the evidence in the record, such as the page numbers from the written transcript of the hearing or written documents which were presented at the hearing, to support your argument.  For example, "Tr. pp. 365-70" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced of your point that you are writing about by looking at pages 365 through 370 of the hearing transcript, and  "Parent Ex. Q at p. 8" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced by the information on page 8 of Parent's documentary exhibit Q.

e. Part 279 requires that an Answer be signed by the party (i.e., the parent), unless the parent is represented by an attorney, in which case the Answer must be signed by the party's attorney. The Answer must be dated.

f. You may also submit written argument in the form of a Memorandum of Law with your Answer.  The Memorandum of Law in support of an Answer must not exceed 30 pages in length.

Please Note: To facilitate processing, the Office of State Review encourages parties to use regular staples only to fasten pages together and discourages parties from using binding systems for papers submitted to the Office of State Review (i.e. comb binding, velobinding, tape binding, etc.)

g. If you have prepared the Answer but find you are

• in disagreement with some parts of the IHO's decision,
• asking the State Review Officer to change the IHO's decision, or
• asking the State Review Officer to go beyond the matters that were ruled on in your favor in the IHO's decision

then you should consider filing a Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal which, will allow you to respond to districts appeal and challenge those parts of the IHO's decision that you believe should be changed.  The instructions for filing an Verified Answer and Cross Appeal are contained in Section III of this Parent Guide.

3. Affidavit of Verification (Form D / Form D)

A verification is a document prepared after the Answer has been completed, signed, and dated. In the Affidavit of Verification, you make an oath in front of any person authorized to administer oaths in New York State (such as a Notary Public or Commissioner of Deeds) that the statements in the signed and dated Answer are true to the best of your knowledge.  You will usually find a Notary Public or a Commissioner of Deeds in a government office, a bank, or by searching the internet for a notary in your area. Affirmations, if used, must be sworn under penalties of perjury. 

1. Service of the Answer

After you have prepared the Answer and Affidavit of Verification and any optional Memorandum of Law, make two copies.  One copy of the Verified Answer must be served (i.e. delivered) upon the school district either by personal delivery, U.S. mail, or overnight delivery service (i.e. UPS or FedEx) to the school district or the school district's attorney(s) who signed the Request for Review.   If you do not serve the Verified Answer on the school district's attorney, service must be made upon the school district clerk, any trustee or member of the Board of Education, to the superintendent of schools, or to a person in the superintendent's office who has been designated by the Board to accept service. Service of the Verified Answer must occur within the timeline unless a State Review Officer has granted your request for an extension of the timeline.

2. Affidavit of Service

a. An Affidavit of Service is a written form that states how the papers were served.  The Affidavit of Service must be signed by the person who served the school district with the documents in front of a notary public.  You should make a copy of the Affidavit of Service for your records.

b. You may hand-deliver a Verified Answer, but hand-delivery is not required (see below for mailing instructions).   If the Verified Answer is hand-delivered to the school district, the person who delivered the Verified Answer must sign an Affidavit of Personal Service (Form E / Form E).  The Affidavit of Personal Service must include:

• What papers were delivered
• Who delivered the papers
• Where the papers were delivered
• The date and time the papers were delivered, and
• A description of the person to whom the papers were given

c. If your Verified Answer is served by mail or overnight delivery service, the person who mailed the Verified Answer must sign an Affidavit of Service by Mail (Form F / Form F). 

d.The forms provided on the web site of the Office of State Review are for service in accordance with State regulations only.  The Office of State Review does not provide other forms for use in conjunction with alternative methods of service of a Verified Answer as agreed to by parties.

3. Filing with the Office of State Review

The following items must be filed within 2 calendar days of the date that the Verified Answer was served on the school district:  

1. the Answer
2. the Affidavit of Verification
3. a Memorandum of Law (optional), and
4. the Affidavit of Service

As of March 2023, you are strongly encouraged to electronically file the documents listed above using the secure, encrypted e-File System instead of mailing them to the Office of State Review. The e-File System features on-screen and e-mail messages to the address you provide and confirms successful transmission of your filings to the Office of State Review.  The Office of State Review e-File System is powered by a software product called HighQ, and the automated messages are generated from a highq.com email address. In order to receive e-mail confirmation messages from the e-File System, please be sure any spam or junk filters  you have do not prevent you from receiving e-mail messages from highq.com.

If you do not use the e-Filing System, you may mail them to the State Review Officer at the following address:

Office of State Review

New York State Education Department

80 Wolf Road, Suite 203

Albany, NY 12205

4. Improper Service/Filing of an Answer

If you fail to properly serve your  Verified Answer upon the school district within the timeline or your extended timeline, the school district may be prevented from responding to your Verified Answer and the State Review Officer may be required to reject your Verified Answer.  However, the State Review Officer will still conduct an impartial review of the IHO's decision.

If you neglect to file your Verified Answer with the Office of State Review,  the State Review Officer will not know that you have prepared one and will have no way to address the specific points that you made in your Answer at all.   The State Review Officer will be required to issue a final decision within the decision timeline, and will still conduct an impartial review of the IHO's decision after reviewing the entire hearing record.

1. If you need more time to prepare and serve an Answer, you may ask for a specific extension of the timelines.  This allows the State Review Officer to move the decision timeline and, in turn, extend the timeline in which you must serve an Answer.  You must request an extension before the date your Answer is due.

2. Your extension request for an answer must be in writing, addressed to the Office of State Review.  You must also send a duplicate copy of your request to the school district's attorney when you send it to the Office of State Review. 

3. Your extension request should include:

   • the good cause reason why you need the extension of time. Examples of good cause often include good faith settlement negotiations, serious medical procedures and catastrophic events, but reasons such as vacations, general travel plans, and workload considerations alone are rarely considered good cause;

   • whether your child is currently receiving special education services either from a public school district/institution or from a private school/institution/provider. It is useful if you can briefly describe to the State Review Officer the current special education services that your child is receiving, if any, and if the services are being provided under pendency (also called stay-put);

   • whether the the school district, agrees with or opposes your request for additional time.  For this reason you must contact the school district's attorney before filing your extension request to ask if the district will consent or oppose your request for more time and then write in your extension request to the Office of State Review whether the school district consented to or opposed the extension.  If the roles are reversed and the parent is the petitioner, a school district must follow the same process for seeking an extension of time; and

   • it will help the Office of State Review with processing your request if you briefly describe the outcome of the impartial hearing officer's decision being appealed.  Examples of outcomes are "the IHO granted my request for tuition reimbursement" or "the IHO granted a portion of compensatory education that I requested, but denied payment for an independent evaluation of my child" or "the IHO granted my request for an order for pendency services for my child."

4. When filing requests for extensions, it is common for parties to seek extensions of time in two-week increments or less because State Review Officers do not customarily grant extensions in longer increments.

   • As of March 2023, you are strongly encouraged to electronically file any extension request(s) using the secure, encrypted e-File System instead of mailing or faxing them to the Office of State Review. The e-File System features on-screen and e-mail messages to the address you provide and confirms successful transmission of your filings to the Office of State Review.  The Office of State Review e-File System is powered by a software product called HighQ, and the automated messages are generated from a highq.com e-mail address. In order to receive e-mail confirmation messages from the e-File System, please be sure any spam or junk filters  you have do not prevent you from receiving e-mail messages from highq.com.

   • If you use the e-File System, one option you have is to create your own extension request document and upload it to the e-File System. But under that option you are responsible to send a copy to the opposing party, typically the district's attorney.  Alternatively, after filling out the extension request questionnaire in the e-File System, a document can be automatically prepared and filed for you and a copy returned to your e-mail address for your records.  Under the automated option, a copy of your request will also be automatically sent to the e-mail address of the opposing party that you provide in the questionnaire.  Regardless of which option you choose, as noted above, you still need to contact the other side before the request to the State Review Officer and ask whether there is consent or opposition to your extension request.

5. The State Review Officer will inform both parties in writing whether your request will be granted based upon the circumstances of the case.

6. You may use the following form if you wish to prepare your own document  (Form G/ Form G). 

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 have decided that you do not agree with some of the determinations made by the IHO and wish to challenge portions of the IHO's decision, you should follow the instructions below for preparing, serving and filing an "Answer with Cross-Appeal."  By making this filing, 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 issues that at least one of the parties has either appealed or cross-appealed.  

If you do not wish to challenge any part of the IHO's decision and only wish to oppose the district's challenges to the IHO's Decision in the Request for Review, you should not file a Cross-Appeal. Instead, you should follow the instructions for preparing an Answer in Section II of this Parent's Guide.

The guidance provided in this section presumes that the parent is the Respondent who already received a Request for Review and intends to respond in an Answer with Cross-Appeal. In this case, the district is the Petitioner in the appeal to the State Review Officer.  However, if those roles are reversed, a Respondent school district would follow the same rules in a similar manner in order to serve and file an Answer with Cross-Appeal upon a parent Petitioner.

1. A Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal (Form C / Form C)

If the School District has served you with a Notice of Intention to Seek Review and you also intend to challenge some parts of the IHO's decision, you must prepare a Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal and serve it to the Board of Education of the school district no later than 30 calendar days after the date of the decision of the impartial hearing officer that you are Cross-Appealing. The Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal is not the The Answer with Cross-Appeal itself.  It is the first of several documents that must be prepared to cross-appeal from an IHO's decision. It is important that you provide notice to the district of your intent to Cross-Appeal.

2. A Case Information Statement (Form C/ Form C)

You must complete a Case Information Statement along with your Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal.  You may combine the Case Information Statement together with the Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal into a single document. The Case Information Statement identifies which issues you plan to ask a State Review Officer to review, which may be different than the list of issues that the school district wants the State Review Officer to review.  This list is not the Cross-Appeal itself, and you are not limited to the issues identified on the Case Information Statement and can raise additional issues in your Cross-Appeal.  However, if no party has raised a specific issue/ruling of the IHO, either in the Request for Review or the Cross-Appeal, it will be considered abandoned and will not be addressed by a State Review Officer.

3. How to Serve the Notice of Cross-Appeal/Case Information Statement

After the Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal and Case Information Statement are prepared, copies of both forms must be hand-delivered to the school district.  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 Cross-Appeal with the Office of State Review, but only after you have completed several additional documents and steps such as preparing and serving your Answer with Cross-Appeal.

4. Failure to Serve a Notice of Cross-Appeal/Case Information Statement

If you fail to Serve a Notice of Intention to Cross-Appeal/Case Information Statement upon the school district, it does not automatically bar your Cross-Appeal.  You should still proceed with preparing and serving your Answer with Cross-Appeal within the time limits and the State Review Officer will decide whether to allow your Cross-Appeal in light of the particular circumstances in the case.

1. Timeline

A school district's Request for Review is usually served on a parent by hand-delivery.  After the school district serves you with the Request for Review, you may prepare an Answer with Cross-Appeal.  You must serve the school district with the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal within 5 business days after the district serves you with the Request for Review.  You may request an extension of this deadline from the State Review Officer.

2. Answer with Cross-Appeal

After reading the Request for Review, decide whether you disagree with any of the district's statements in the Request for Review.  In your Answer with Cross-Appeal, you should respond to each issue identified by the district in the Request for Review.  If the IHO did not rule on issues that were written in the due process complaint notice that you want a State Review Officer to review, identify them in your Answer with Cross-Appeal.

a. The Answer with Cross-Appeal should be typewritten using standard double-spacing, in 12-point Times New Roman font, on standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch white paper, and no longer than 10 pages.  Margins should be no smaller than 1 inch.

b. A caption or heading should appear in the upper left hand corner of the first page of the Answer with Cross-Appeal, listing the same parental and school district parties that appear on the school district's Notice of Intention to Seek Review and its Notice of Request for Review.

c. Begin the Answer with Cross-Appeal by identifying yourself as the parent or person in parental relationship to the child.

d. With the school district's Request for Review in mind, explain to the State Review Officer whether you agree or disagree with the school district's challenges to the IHO's decision.  This will be the answering or responding portion of your pleading.  If possible, you should refer to the evidence in the record, such as the page numbers from the written transcript of the hearing or written documents which were presented at the hearing, to support your argument.  For example, "Tr. pp. 365-70" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced of your point that you are writing about by looking at pages 365 through 370 of the hearing transcript, and  "Parent Ex. Q at p. 8" means that the State Review Officer should focus on or be convinced by the information on page 8 of Parent's documentary exhibit Q.

e. Next, address your "Cross-Appeal" by making a clear and concise statement of the issues/IHO rulings that you would like the State Review Officer to review and the reasons that the IHO's decision should be reversed or changed.  Number each issue/IHO ruling separately.  Also, explain the hearing officer's failure to or refusal to rule on/decide an issue and if you would like the State Review Officer to review that issue.  Again, if possible, you should refer to the evidence in the record, such as the page numbers from the written transcript of the hearing or written documents which were presented at the hearing, to support your argument.

f. In general, only the issues/rulings raised by either the school district or the parent will be addressed by the State Review Officer and if neither the school district or you challenge  an issue (either in the school district's request for  review or your Answer with Cross-Appeal) the State Review Officer will not address it and will assume that both parties are abandoning the issue. 

g. If you object to the way in which the IHO conducted the hearing, you should state your objection, and if possible, you should refer to any pages of the written record of the hearing which relate to your objection.

h. You may also submit written argument in the form of a Memorandum of Law with your Answer with Cross-Appeal.  The Memorandum of Law in support of an Answer with Cross-Appeal must not exceed 30 pages in length.

Please Note: If you file using the e-Filing System in the Office of State Review, you are no longer required to submit a hard copy with the Office.

If you opt to file a hard copy by mail, to facilitate processing, the Office of State Review encourages parties to use regular staples only to fasten pages together and discourages parties from using binding systems for papers submitted to the Office of State Review (i.e. comb binding, velobinding, tape binding, etc.).

i. Indicate what relief or remedy you are seeking by bringing the appeal.  At the end of the Request for Review, you should explain to the State Review Officer what you would like to see happen.  You may ask the State Review Officer to reverse or change the IHO's decision and, for example:

• order that your child is eligible for special education;
• order that a different evaluation/assessment of your child be conducted;
• order your child's type of classroom setting or other special service(s) be changed (or not be changed);
• order that extra special education services be provided by the school district to your child to make up for a lack of services that the district should have provided to your child in the past; and/or
• order that you be reimbursed for private school tuition because you obtained appropriate specialized schooling/programming that your child needed after the district failed to provide your child with appropriate special education.

The items above are several examples of relief that parents have sought from State Review Officers and is not the only relief you may request. You must decide what you believe the school district should be ordered to do to help your child and explain what you would like the State Review Officer to order.

j. Part 279 requires that an Answer with Cross-Appeal be signed by the party (i.e., the parent), unless the parent is represented by an attorney, in which case the Answer with Cross-Appeal must be signed by the party's attorney.  An Answer with Cross-Appeal must be dated.

j. If you have prepared an Answer with Cross-Appeal but find you are

• NOT in disagreement with some the IHO's decision,
• NOT asking the State Review Officer to change the IHO's decision, or
• NOT asking the State Review Officer to make rulings in addition to those that the IHO made

and you only wish to oppose the school district's challenges to the IHO's decision, then you should consider filing an Answer, which will allow you to respond to the school districts appeal.  The instructions for filing an Answer are contained in Section II of this Parent Guide.

3. Affidavit of Verification (Form D / Form D)

A verification is a document prepared after the Answer with Cross-Appeal has been completed, signed, and dated. In the Affidavit of Verification, you make an oath in front of any person authorized to administer oaths in New York State (such as a Notary Public or Commissioner of Deeds) that the statements in the signed and dated Answer with Cross-Appeal are true to the best of your knowledge.  You will usually find a Notary Public or a Commissioner of Deeds in a government office, a bank, or by searching the internet for a notary in your area. Affirmations, if used, must be sworn under penalties of perjury. 

1.  Service of the Answer with Cross-Appeal

After you have prepared the Answer with Cross-Appeal and Affidavit of Verification, make two copies.  One copy of the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal must be served (i.e. delivered) upon the school district either by personal delivery, U.S. mail, or overnight delivery service (i.e. UPS or FedEx) to the school district or the school district's attorney(s) who signed the request for review.  If you do not serve the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal on the school district's attorney, service must be made upon 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.  Service of the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal must occur within the timeline unless a State Review Officer has granted your request for an extension of the timeline.

2. Affidavit of Service

a. An Affidavit of Service is a written form that states how the papers were served.  The Affidavit of Service must be signed by the person who served the school district with the documents in front of a notary public.  You should make a copy of the Affidavit of Service for your records.

b. You may hand-deliver an Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal, but hand-delivery is not required (see below for mailing instructions). If the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal is hand-delivered to the school district, the person who delivered the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal must sign an Affidavit of Personal Service (Form E / Form E).  The Affidavit of Personal Service must include:

• What papers were delivered
• Who delivered the papers
• Where the papers were delivered
• The date and time the papers were delivered, and
• A description of the person to whom the papers were given.

c. If the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal is served by mail or overnight delivery service, the person who mailed the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal must sign an Affidavit of Service by Mail (Form F / Form F). 

d. The forms provided on the web site of the Office of State Review are for service in accordance with State regulations only.  The Office of State Review does not provide other forms for use in conjunction with alternative methods of service of a Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal as agreed to by parties.

3. Filing with the Office of State Review

The following items must be filed within 2 calendar days of the date that the Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal was served on the school district:  

1. the Answer with Cross-Appeal
2. the Affidavit of Verification
3. a Memorandum of Law (optional), and
4. the Affidavit of Service

As of March 2023, you are strongly encouraged to electronically file the documents listed above using the secure, encrypted e-File System instead of mailing them to the Office of State Review. The e-File System features on-screen and e-mail messages to the address you provide and confirms successful transmission of your filings to the Office of State Review.  The Office of State Review e-File System is powered by a software product called HighQ, and the automated messages are generated from a highq.com email address. In order to receive e-mail confirmation messages from the e-File System, please be sure any spam or junk filters  you have do not prevent you from receiving e-mail messages from highq.com.

If you do not use the e-Filing System, you may mail them to the State Review Officer at the following address:

Office of State Review

New York State Education Department

80 Wolf Road, Suite 203

Albany, NY 12205

4. Improper Service/Filing of a Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal

If you fail to properly serve your Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal upon the school district within the timeline or your extended timeline, the school district may be prevented from responding to your Cross-Appeal and the State Review Officer may be required to dismiss your Cross-Appeal.

If you neglect to file your Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal with the Office of State Review,  the State Review Officer will not know that you have prepared one and will have no way to address your Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal at all.  The State Review Officer will be required to issue a final decision within the decision timeline, regardless of whether or not you file your Verified Answer with Cross-Appeal.

1. If you need more time to prepare and serve an Answer with Cross-Appeal, you may ask for a specific extension of the timelines.  This allows the State Review Officer to move the decision timeline and, in turn, extend the timeline in which you must serve an Answer with Cross-Appeal.  You must request an extension before the date your Answer with Cross-Appeal is due.

2. Your extension request for an Answer with Cross-Appeal must be in writing, addressed to the Office of State Review.  You must also send a duplicate copy of your request to the school district's attorney when you send it to the Office of State Review. 

3. Your extension request should include:

   • the good cause reason why you need the extension of time. Examples of good cause often include good faith settlement negotiations, serious medical procedures and catastrophic events, but reasons such as vacations, general travel plans, and workload considerations alone are rarely considered good cause;

   • whether your child is currently receiving special education services either from a public school district/institution or from a private school/institution/provider. It is useful if you can briefly describe to the State Review Officer the current special education services that your child is receiving, if any, and if the services are being provided under pendency (also called stay-put);

   • whether the the school district, agrees with or opposes your request for additional time.  For this reason you must contact the school district's attorney before filing your extension request to ask if the district will consent or oppose your request for more time and then write in your extension request to the Office of State Review whether the school district consented to or opposed the extension.  If the roles are reversed and the parent is the petitioner, a school district must follow the same process for seeking an extension of time; and

   • it will help the Office of State Review with processing your request if you briefly describe the outcome of the impartial hearing officer's decision being appealed.  Examples of outcomes are "the IHO granted my request for tuition reimbursement" or "the IHO granted a portion of compensatory education that I requested, but denied payment for an independent evaluation of my child" or "the IHO granted my request for an order for pendency services for my child."

4. When filing requests for extensions, it is common for parties to seek extensions of time in two-week increments or less because State Review Officers do not customarily grant extensions in longer increments.

   • As of March 2023, you are strongly encouraged to electronically file any extension request(s) using the secure, encrypted e-File System instead of mailing or faxing them to the Office of State Review. The e-File System features on-screen and e-mail messages to the address you provide and confirms successful transmission of your filings to the Office of State Review.  The Office of State Review e-File System is powered by a software product called HighQ, and the automated messages are generated from a highq.com e-mail address. In order to receive e-mail confirmation messages from the e-File System, please be sure any spam or junk filters  you have do not prevent you from receiving e-mail messages from highq.com.

   • If you use the e-File System, one option you have is to create your own extension request document and upload it to the e-File System. But under that option you are responsible to send a copy to the opposing party, typically the district's attorney.  Alternatively, after filling out the extension request questionnaire in the e-File System, a document can be automatically prepared and filed for you and a copy returned to your e-mail address for your records.  Under the automated option, a copy will also be sent automatically to the e-mail address of the opposing party that you provide.  Regardless of which option you choose, as noted above, you still need to contact the other side before making a request to the State Review Officer and ask whether there is consent or opposition to your extension request.

5. The State Review Officer will inform both parties in writing whether your request will be granted based upon the circumstances of the case.

6. You may use the following form if you wish to prepare your own document (Form G/ Form G).

In each appeal, it is the Board of Education's responsibility, whether it is the petitioner or the respondent, to file a copy of the record before the impartial hearing officer with the Office of State Review, including: a copy of the due process complaint notice; a copy of the response to the due process complaint notice; a copy of the impartial hearing officer's decision; a copy of any written interim orders, rulings, or decisions rendered by the impartial hearing officer; both a bound and electronic copy of the written hearing transcript including word indices; a copy of any prehearing conference summaries or transcripts; a copy of the original exhibits accepted into evidence at the hearing; an index to the exhibits; and a copy of any written post-hearing briefs or memoranda of law submitted to the impartial hearing officer.  Additionally, the Board of Education shall submit a Certification with the record that the record submitted is the complete hearing record.

The Board of Education is required to file the hearing record with the Office of State Review within 10 days after service of a Notice of Intention to Seek Review by the parent if the Board is the respondent, or together with its request for review if it is the petitioner.  If the Board of Education fails to comply with this timeline, the State Review Officer may, at his or her discretion, make appropriate determinations about such failure.

The State Review Officer may seek additional oral testimony or documentary evidence from the parties if the State Review Officer determines that such additional evidence is necessary.  The regulations do not prevent a party from asking a State Review Officer to consider additional evidence that was not placed in the hearing record that was before the IHO.  If you wish the State Review Officer to consider additional documentary evidence you must submit it with your Request for Review, Answer, or Answer with Cross-Appeal. You should explain why it is important for the State Review Officer to consider this evidence. The school district will be permitted to respond to your request and explain why the additional evidence should be considered by the State Review Officer or rejected.

Any party to an appeal may challenge the impartiality of the State Review Officer.  A State Review Officer may not have any personal, economic, or professional interest in the hearing to be reviewed.  The State Review Officer may not have been employed at any time by a party to the appeal, and may not, in any way, have been substantially involved in the development of any State or local policy or procedure that was challenged at the hearing.

A State Review Officer must issue a written decision on your appeal within 30 calendar days of receipt of a Request for Review, unless specific extensions have been granted.  Copies of the State Review Officer's decision will be mailed either to you or your attorney, if you are represented by an attorney, and to the attorney for the Board of Education.  The State Review Officer may also remand (send back) a matter to an impartial hearing officer to take additional evidence into the hearing record or make additional findings in a written decision.

If you are dissatisfied with the State Review Officer's final determination, you may obtain judicial review of the determination in either New York State Supreme Court or Federal District Court.  A lawsuit to review the State Review Officer's decision must be started within 4 months after the decision is rendered.  Instructions and forms for requesting a certified copy of the administrative record before the State Review Officer may be found here.