The records
Special education disputes are decided on records: what was asked for, what was refused, what notice was given, and when. The school district keeps its records as a matter of routine — every notice it sends, every evaluation it conducts, every meeting it documents. This page is about keeping yours to the same standard. Nothing here is legal advice; it is the ordinary discipline of a dated file, applied to your side of the table.
What experienced families keep
A workable file has three properties: nothing is altered, everything is dated, and it reads in order. The practices below are how advocates and parent centers commonly describe a well-kept record.
- Every notice, as received. Prior written notices (in some states a combined form, like Pennsylvania's NOREP), evaluation consents and refusals, meeting invitations, disciplinary notices. Keep the original; note the date it arrived, which can differ from the date it carries.
- Every evaluation and IEP, every version. Drafts and finals both. When a document is revised, the earlier version stays in the file — the differences between versions are often the story.
- A correspondence log. One running list: date, who, method, what was said or asked. Phone calls get an entry the same day, with a follow-up email in your own words ("Confirming what we discussed…") so the call leaves a written trace.
- Emails, exported. Saved out of the inbox on a regular schedule, in a folder by school year. An inbox is not a file; access to it can be lost.
- Meeting notes, dated. Written during or immediately after, with who attended. Where a state or district addresses recording of meetings, its own published rule is the reference — the state pages record what the sources state, and where they state nothing.
- Requests in writing. A request that was only spoken is hard to establish later. The written version can be short and civil; what matters is the date on it.
- Originals unmodified. Annotations go on copies or in the log, never on the document itself. A clean original is worth more than a marked-up one.
- A chronology. One page, newest at the bottom: date, event, document. This is the sheet a new advocate, a mediator, or a hearing officer can absorb in two minutes, and it is built from everything above.
The organizer, in preparation
A paid tool that assembles your own files into the format above — correspondence log, notice log, evaluation timeline, exhibit index, chronology — as a packet a meeting or hearing can follow. It runs entirely on your own computer: all processing is local, and nothing about you or your child ever reaches this site. It selects nothing and pre-fills nothing based on anyone's state or circumstances. One price, no tiers. Not yet available; the checklist above is free and is most of the discipline.
If an outcome could affect your child's placement, services, or eligibility, consider obtaining qualified assistance — a parent center listed on your state's page, an advocate, or an attorney — before responding.