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).