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