Asking your child’s IEP team for a one-to-one aide
Adult support during the day is an IEP decision, and the letter below puts that decision in front of the team in writing. Either parent named on the IEP may send it, without a diagnosis and without waiting for the annual review. You can send it today: paste it into an email, replace what sits in brackets, and write down the day the school received it; the table below says which day starts each clock.
What the rule says
“Supplementary aids and services means aids, services, and other supports that are provided in regular education classes, other education-related settings, and in extracurricular and nonacademic settings, to enable children with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children …”
34 CFR 300.42
An aide sits inside that definition, which turns a staffing arrangement into something the team decides.
When to send it
- A staff member walks beside your child all day and no page of the document mentions that person.
- Two incident reports this term describe the same minute of the day going wrong.
- The nurse or the front office calls you to come in when a support was expected to be there.
What happens after you send it
| What is being counted | By when | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| A meeting is set | Set by your state | No federal count governs how soon a requested team meeting is booked; your state’s does.34 CFR 300.503(a) |
| Records you asked for | 45 days | Access to existing records runs from your request, and 45 days is the outside limit.34 CFR 300.613(a) |
What the letter has to contain
The settings and the times
A request for more support in general gets a general answer. Name the hallway and the lunch line and those get answered.
Supplementary aids and services are named on the document alongside the rest. 34 CFR 300.320(a)(4)
What the school already tried
Without that list the team starts at the first idea again, and your child waits out another round of it.
The team considers positive behavioral interventions when behavior impedes learning. 34 CFR 300.324(a)(2)(i)
Who delivers it, and when
Support that belongs to nobody in particular disappears on the day the person who was doing it stays home.
Each service on the IEP carries an anticipated frequency, location and duration. 34 CFR 300.320(a)(7)
The records behind the answer
Whatever the team read to reach its decision is what you need in order to argue with the decision.
You may inspect and review the education records the agency keeps on your child. 34 CFR 300.613(a)
The letter
Replace everything in brackets. The rest sends as it stands.
- To
- The team chair, plus the building administrator
- Subject
- Adult support during the school day — [Child’s full name], [Grade]
Dear [IEP team chair], I am writing about my child, [Child’s full name], a [Grade] student at [School name]. I am asking the team to decide whether [he/she/they] needs one-to-one adult support during the activities below. These are the moments I am asking about: • [Time of day or class] — [what happens when no adult is beside my child] • [Setting — hallway, bus, cafeteria, restroom] — [what happens there] • [Activity] — [what my child manages alone, and where that stops] Already tried: [the supports the school has used, and how they went]. Please weigh one-to-one or paraprofessional support, name the settings it would cover, and say who provides it and on what schedule. I would also like copies of the incident and staffing notes the team reads. If the district declines, please put the reasons in the notice 34 CFR 300.503 describes. With thanks, [Your name] [Email] · [Phone] Sent [Today’s date]
If no answer comes back
Let your state’s count for a meeting request run out from the day the office logged this one.
- Send the same request again from the top of the thread, with your dates attached.
- Telephone the office, then put what you were told into an email that afternoon.
- Ask the principal to route the same three settings to the district office.
A no owes you prior written notice: the decision, the reason for it, and the records behind it (34 CFR 300.503).
This is a template, not legal advice: it does not replace your state’s procedures, or advice from someone qualified to read your file.
Have the pages you are writing about read back to you, free.
The review reads every page you upload, names the wording that is vague or missing, and gives you its page number.
Review my IEP — freeFree, no card. It reads your pages and contacts no one.
Where this comes from
- Supplementary aids and services (34 CFR 300.42)What counts as a support.
- IEP content (34 CFR 300.320)How a service gets written down.
- Access to records (34 CFR 300.613)What you may read yourself.
- Prior written notice (34 CFR 300.503)What a no owes you.
Response deadlines are set state by state, and the state pages carry each number with its rule.